The Runner and the Loner, the Athlete And the Jock (Humans)
by Tigercry
Summary: Yet another human Warriors collection, however, this one is in one world. This collection is snippets and pieces of this particular Warriors High School world, where Briarlight's a runner, Jayfeather's flat out blind, Lionblaze is a "perfect" Jock, and Cinderheart's unable to use one arm. And Of course, Cinderheart and Lionblaze's relationship is a mess. As per usual. (Dropped)
1. Intro, Meet Briley The Runner

_**Hey guys! So I wanted to start a new collection of stories, but this one is limited to a specific world I've created with a different version of the humanized warriors! So I started this, the Runner and the Loner, the Athlete and the jock. This is essentially bits and pieces of a warriors high story but it's not consecutive for the most part, everything happens randomly and at random points in time. Each piece will have a title and the table of contents (the chapter after this one) will include brief summaries of each chapter along with a short starter idea down at the bottom to prevent me from getting into trouble :P But here we go, another Human Warriors Collection centered on a high school romance theme between two sets of characters and the complicated things they're involved in. The descriptions will change as the storyline continues, and the ages with fluctuating depending on the time period.**_

 _ **Note: I do accept requests for plot ideas for a piece of the collection, see the bottom of this chapter for the requested layout if you're interested! Be aware however that I won't do every request within a short time frame (I take forever to write! XD) and they'll go between other chapters.**_

 _Meet Briley The Runner, And the Characters Themselves_

Adrenaline surged through Briley's veins as she hunkered down into the starting position for the race. She could smell the faint scent of remaining rain from the earlier shower that left the track glinting with water in the now bright summer sunlight. Her heart beat fast as she waited for the start of the race itself. She loved to run, it was a well-known fact that she loved running almost more than fiddling with circuits and technology and hiding away in her room trying to fix the world's problems. Yet almost nobody knew exactly how much she enjoyed running. Running was her peace, if gave the brunette time to think without any interruption, it freed her from the many misconceptions of her mental issues that caused the rest of the world to think something was wrong with her, and it gave her the freedom she subconsciously craved.

The starter pistol went off and Briley surged forward, feeling the spikes in her track shoes grip the rough track as she pushed off on her left foot and flew forward, small rocks spraying behind her as she moved. Freedom! Her muscles practically screamed as she broke into a sprint that was slow enough to pace herself yet fast enough to hopefully stay ahead of the other runners whose footsteps she could vaguely hear over top of her own and the blood pounding in her ears. The rhythmic thrumming of her feet hitting the ground combined with her smooth breathing helped settle her spinning mind and sort her thoughts correctly like a normal person's thoughts should be. _I'm free…_ Briley murmured inwardly, her sharp amber eyes locked on the track a few yards in front of her. _Free from the rest of the confusing world._ She could feel the glee bubbling up into her chest at the thought of being free from everyone's judging eyes and instead, appreciated for the gift she was born with. The ability to run, and run, and run some more.

Briley could hear cheering from her schoolmates as they hoped she and Mike, a young but fast freshman, would bring their school, and her new school, yet another win, but it did nothing to spur her on. It never did. That was one of the things wrong with her she was told by some of the kids at school, she had nearly no desire to push herself to make other people happy, she was content with her own abilities and didn't require a cheering section to push herself harder. She only cared about what a few people thought about herself, otherwise, she couldn't care less.

"One lap down Briley." A rather rumbling male voice broke into her thoughts.

"Thank you Lionfang, but I'm aware of my surroundings," Briley rolled her eyes at her friend, she could hear him running too, his footsteps softer and almost inaudible yet his strides were much longer than hers with his much taller stature. She refocused her gaze on the track and slowed a hint, giving the appearance of that she was beginning to tire with the three lapped race. "But I do appreciate the warning."

"Well you did seem to be zoning out yet again," Lionfang pointed out, "just thought I'd let you know."

"Well thank you, but like I've told you before you big lion," Briley snorted, "I've been running for so long it's all muscle memory by now." She turned the second turn of the winding asphalt track, her amber eyes locked on the red colored asphalt of her particular lane. She could hear the other runners close behind her sprinting faster to catch up to her and overtake her, but didn't show any sign of nervousness, silently saving her energy for the last lap to give herself a major lead. She could hear her schoolmates booing, but if anything it amused her, a lot of them had seen her use this tactic before at her third race, the one before this one, yet they still booed and got annoyed by her losing the lead temporarily. She waited, running rather slowly, for her speed anyway, until the end of the second lap where she surged forward once again, starting at fifth and slowly climbing the ranks back up to the top.

Minutes past, Briley enjoying the rushing wind against her face cooling her down from the exertion of the running, enjoying the rhythmic sound of her feet pounding the asphalt, the in sync metronome of her breathing, the adrenaline running through her veins, and the pleasant burning of her muscles. Until it was all over, she crossed the ending line and gently slowed to a stop, hearing the times being announced as she slowed from the sprint to a run, then to a jog, and at last to a trot. She breathed deeply, filling up her lungs with needed air from the exciting sprint that ended with her leading once again and had given her the fleeting sense of freedom she wanted to have with her all the time.

"Another win!" Lionfang cackled rather smugly, "you're on fire this year!"

Briley rolled her eyes and moved back into a jog for a cooldown lap, not noticing her team's trainer flagging her down. "I'm not on fire, I haven't done anything different from previous years weirdo," she teased, "I'm just cruising through like I always do."

"You are definitely not one of the cool kids, Lionfang snickered at her attempt of an accent, "and Ashton's waving you over, you should probably see what he wants."

"Why be one of the cool kids when you can just be you?" Briley pointed out to him as she turned and went toward her training instead of jogging the cool down lap, knowing that it wouldn't kill her muscles as long as she stretched instead. "I mean there's no point in trying to pretend your someone differently. Plus this is one of my first races here, gotta start with a nearly perfect record."

"Who're you talking to?" Triston, the boy who recorded the times specifically for Ashton's notes, asked and gave her an odd look from where he was standing next to Ashton with a clipboard and an electric stopwatch.

Briley rolled her eyes and pointed to her ginger-haired friend standing next to her, "him." She replied simply before looking at her trainer who looked a little amused behind his rather stone expression, "yeah?"

"But there's no one-" Triston complained but was cut off by Ashton giving him a light smack over the head with a rolled up notebook that contained all of his notes and a stern look.

"Who's he?" Lionfang whispered in Briley's ear, looking confused himself.

Briley rolled her eyes, "Lionfang," she gestured from her friend to Tristan, "Triston, Ashton's assistant. Triston," she gestured from Triston to Lionfang, "Lionfang. There, now will you let Ashton speak?"

Lionfang pouted but did as she asked while Triston looked at Briley like she was insane. Which was a pretty average look that she received at this new school

Briley then looked at Ashton, "did you need something Ashton?" She asked curiously, "because otherwise, I have to stretch so I don't end up stiff tomorrow and go finish up my latest project with Lionfang." Luckily the race today had been on her school's home turf, making it easier to escape looks like Triston's and retreat to the safety of her dorm and her dorm section which she shared with two guys named Jayke and Leo and a girl named Casi. She hadn't seen the Jayke guy yet, he was supposed to arrive today or tomorrow morning. Personally, she hoped for the latter option, she wanted to be able to have her peace and quiet for the rest of the day without the set of siblings and their childhood friend chattering like birds.

Ashton flipped open his notebook and skimmed over a few things as he spoke, "well you've secured your spot on the track team despite your lack of going to all of the practices and you're a very good runner, good form, speed, and stamina."

"So I'm on the team and I can go?" Briley asked curiously, drumming the fingers of her left hand against her opposite arm, her fidgetiness appearing hardly a few moments after she had stopped running.

Ashton looked rather amused at her behavior and waved her off, "yes, but please start coming to some of the practices Briley, it is a requirement."

"I would if I wasn't stuck with so many people," Briley replied with a shrug as she started to walk away from the track field and toward the large tri building school. She whistled lightly before continuing, "and the team likes to bother my dog." A chocolate retriever, a chocolate lab and golden retriever mix, escaped the grasp of a group of girls at the bleachers and started running toward her, it's leash dragging around on the ground as it ran, the red service vest catching the sunlight slightly.

Triston looked even more confused and he turned to the coach, "She's disabled? But how?"

Ashton gave him a stern look, "Triston, that is none of your business." He looked back at the walking away girl, "We'll work something out, the team needs you at practices Briley."

"Let me know what happens," Briley shrugged and kept walking, the dog now trotting at her heels in full work mode yet having her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth.

Once Briley was out of earshot Ashton sighed, "I deal with enough disabled athletes and students," he sighed to himself and started toward the center of the track to fetch Briley's ribbon, "between her, Casi, Jayke, and Hava that's more than a dorm head should have to handle."

Triston blinked and hurried after him, "Casi's that athlete whose unable to use her left arm and Jayke's that blind kid right?"

Ashton nodded, "and Hava is the girl unable to use one of her hands."

* * *

 _ **~ Briley ~**_

 _ **(Br-I-lee)**_

 _ **Briley is a dark brown haired girl with bright amber eyes whose pupils are ringed with icy blue that fades into the orange, giving her a semi spaced out natural expression. She has tanned skin, a spray of freckles along the bridge of her nose and upper cheeks, a slim and semi petite yet athletic build, a height of 5' 4," in long-legged for her height, long nimble fingers, thin arms, a small nose, and is overall pretty fit for a runner.**_

 _ **Briley's disability is mental, She has ADHD that leans more on the brooding inattentive side along with a high IQ that prevents her from learning at a slow rate like everyone else. She also has brain damage that has resulted in Anomic Aphasia, sometimes she can take several minutes where she's looking for a specific word, unable to sporadically remember words for specific objects and things in general. The three issues mix, making the fun-loving brunette seem more isolated, unattentive, anti-people for the most part, selfish, and a know it all. Briley has a friend she calls Lionfang that is completely a figment of her imagination, he's not actually real but is one of the people Briley knew as a child and was killed in the same school shooting that Briley sustained brain damage at. She believes he's real and can even hear him.**_

 _ **To help with the issues Briley has a service dog named Blase who's mainly training to give her space from other people, fetch things and objects, help her focus properly, help calm and control her frustration and temper, and alert her of other people trying to get her attention or help keep her attention there.**_

 _ **Briley's an athlete. A nerd, and a loner. She doesn't mix with many people yet enjoys a variety of things.**_

 _ **Briley doesn't have a crush at the current moment, however, she's going to develop one on Jayke after developing a fascination in the blind loner.**_

 _ **Briley is 16 years-old.**_

* * *

 _ **~ Casi ~**_

 _ **(Ck-ah-see)**_

 _ **Casi is a black haired girl with sapphire blue eyes, lightly tanned skin and freckles scattered lightly over her skin, a slim and athletic build, a height of 5' 9," long legs, thin fingers, and is very fit.**_

 _ **Casi's unable to use her left arm due to nerve damage and refused to have anyone do anything to it so normally she has her arm in a light blue sling.**_

 _ **However, when she's playing sports she has a thin metal "exoskeleton" basically a series of lightweight tiny metal rods that go along the length of underside her arm and spread out from her palm to each of her fingers. It allows her to mimic her muscle movements by using muscle memory, although it gives her a headache so she prefers to only use it during games and shoot one handed while during practice.**_

 _ **Casi is a basketball player and the "star player" with a major crush on their captain Leo. She and Leo have a distant past, he feels guilty for his father being responsible for the car crash that resulted in her injury back when they were kids and in fact this is the second year they've seen each other in seven years. She's kissed him before, and they've actually gone on a few dates but didn't get together, instead Leo's currently with Iria, one of the very popular girls.**_

 _ **Casi is 17 ½ years old.**_

* * *

 _ **~ Jayke ~**_

 _ **(Jay-k)**_

 _ **Jayke is a black haired boy with striking baby blue eyes, pale skin, a thin and semi lanky built for his height, a height of 5' 6," and is a decent athlete even though he doesn't always like to participate due to his blindness.**_

 _ **Jay is blind, he was born blind and has a few special pieces of equipment that prevent him from needing a guide dog of some kind of guidance system.**_

 _ **In one ear Jay always has a tiny Bluetooth device that is connected to a GPS of the school in his pocket and his shoes have specially designed tech in the front to vibrate and alert him of walls and incoming objects however the device is beginning to break. His backpack has special slots for each of his classes and he carries a laptop with a specially designed screen to allow him to hear what is on the screen via his Bluetooth device and feel the braille of said words.**_

 _ **Jayke is considered a loner, he's not a big fan of people and people know to stay away from him when angered.**_

 _ **He's currently in a budding relationship with Havla and with later develop feelings for Briley.**_

 _ **Jayke is 17 years-old.**_

* * *

 _ **~ Leo ~**_

 _ **(Lee-O)**_

 _ **Leo is a golden blonde haired boy with warm handsome amber eyes, tanned skin, a lean muscular build, a height of 6' 2,"and is known for his incredible strength, being a hard worker, and clearly his looks.**_

 _ **Leon's basically the King Jock, he's the captain of the basketball team, a reservist for the soccer team with the position center forward, and the reserve quarterback for the school's football team on top of being a pretty good student, easily a ladies man, and a kind guy. He has no disabilities besides his occasional habit of being too cocky and arrogant along with boasting a little too much.**_

 _ **He's in a relationship with Iria, one of the incredibly popular girls at the school. He actually has a crush on Casi and has for a while, but doesn't want to hurt Iria's feelings no matter how annoying and dramatic he thinks his girlfriend is.**_

 _ **Leo is 17 years-old.**_

* * *

 _ **~ Havla ~**_

 _ **Havla is a light blonde haired girl with gentle light blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, a slim petite build, a height of 5 4" and is a quiet bookworm.**_

 _ **Havla has nerve damage in her right hand that causes her short bursts of numbness and pain, despite this she's undeterred and continues to be herself.**_

 _ **She doesn't have anything special to help with her hand, she doesn't really need anything.**_

 _ **Havla is 18 years-old**_

 _ **(More will be potentially added later)**_

* * *

 **Request Layout**

 **Person requesting**

 **Plot idea for a piece? Or a series of drabbles?**

 **If it's a plot, what is it? (Fragments and random ideas are enough)**

 **If it's a series of drabbles, are the drabbles centered around and how many? (up to 4)**

 **Particularly Highlighted Character(s)**

 **Example:**

 **Tigercry**

 **Series of drabbles**

 **Cinderheart (Casi) annoying Icecloud (Iria) and making her be rather dramatic, who has Lionblaze (Leo) get involved**

 **A moment from Cinderheart and Lionblaze's (Casi and Leo's) past**

 **Briarlight (Briley) messing around with technology in her part of the dorm sector and arguing with Lionfang (OC Lionel) through Jayfeather's (Jayke's) pov**

 **Cinderheart, Lionblaze, Briarlight, and Jayfeather**


	2. Meet Casi The Athlete

_**~Snowcrystal of ThunderClan~**_

 _It is another one! :D Alrighty! Hollyleaf's in there! She may be a little different than you're expecting, but she's there! :D Thank you! I'm glad you like them! :D_

 ** _~Jayfeather is my spirit animal~_**

 _Yay! :D_

 ** _~Wandering Snowleaf~_**

 _Yup! :P I'm hoping it will be! :D :D_

* * *

 _Meet Casi The Athlete_

The ball flew in a perfect arc and the net swished softly as the three-pointer went straight through without so much as brushing against the rim or backboard. Casi grimaced and lightly shook her left arm, a rather pained expression on her face as she did so and began to walk over to the bouncing basketball. She hated pain, it was something that she along with many people didn't appreciate. However, Casi also understood the point of it and knew that it was oftentimes a perfect distraction for when something was bothering her like right now. Sure she was at basketball practice and the coach was drilling the team about how some of them needed the team to work together with a little more with the upcoming game, but she had an entire variety of things bothering her. Leo was the main source of her problems, with how she had had a crush on him for nearing two years now and yet he was with the most annoying girl on the planet.

Her blue gaze strayed around the court to locate her childhood friend, something that happened quite frequently. _If only Hailey was here…_ She though a little sadly, her best friend wasn't at the school anymore with how she had graduated high school as a junior and was two years older, she was off finishing up college through a speed run one year program which she was almost finished with. Sometimes Casi felt lost and confused without her friend around anymore, Hailey had been one of the best support pillars and best friends a person could have, playful and goofy yet responsible and logical beyond belief, and now she was gone. Casi wouldn't see her for who knows how long, and it was something she was really struggling with. Hailey had been the only one who knew about the phantom pains her left arm had decently often, making excuses for her when she could hardly think straight from how her head was spinning from the pain. Not only that but Hailey had done everything to try and get Casi to get over Leo, which was partially a lost cause of a relationship between Casi and Leo, and when Casi had needed a friend to talk to Hailey had been there. Hailey had been with her since they were little kids, she had been there next to Casi as the blue-eyed girl recovered from the car accident that still haunted her, helping her practice her basketball one-handed for nine years and reminding her every time she wanted to give up that she was stronger than she thought she was. Hailey had been Casi's role model and close companion for forever, and now when she really needed the support she wasn't there.

Casi rolled her neck, twisting and loosening some of her tensing muscles. She also felt guilty, she was getting pretty close to the new girl in her dorm sector friend wise and it made Casi feel admittedly a little guilty. But Briley was able to do things Hailey couldn't, Briley could tell which muscles in her shoulders were making the pain in her arm worse and she had even built a device to alert her of the phantom pains before they actually started. Briley and Hailey were both incredible people, and she wished she could have them both at her side at the same time, then she could be invincible.

Casi stiffened when she felt strong hands rest on her shoulders and gently massage some of the muscles near her shoulder blades before she realized who it was and relaxed back to her normal stance.

"You've become really lost in your thoughts since Hailey left," Leo's baritone voice made Casi's heart warm even as he continued, "or are you in pain besides your shoulders?"

Casi shrugged her shoulders lightly, "a mix of both I think. I miss Hailey," she admitted to her crush and childhood friend, "it's been so long since we've been apart for this long it's strange."

"I know it's hard," Leo told her as he carefully worked briefly on some of the muscles that were bothering his friend, "but Hailey wouldn't want you to be moping, she'd prefer you meet new people and make more friends."

Casi snorted, "Leo, I have plenty of friends close and average, I've become pretty popular with other people other the past year and a half."

"Leo!"

Casi cursed the day that Iria decided to start watching the basketball practices. It used to be one of the few times where she could get time with him to herself how she had to frequently practice and adapt using only one hand most of the time.

"I never said you didn't," Leo's breath tickled Casi's ear before he moved away and went over to his girlfriend at the lowest level of the bleachers, giving a dazzling smile before he explained how he was helping his team's star player, a title Casi had earned the hard way. Casi let her left arm remain at her side as she caught a stray ball and dribbled around the court, solidifying her ability to dribble with only one hand, the ball bouncing evenly between her left and right sides as she dribbled one-handed before shooting another three-pointer but without her left hand. A slight smile spread across her face as the ball swished softly through the net, _thanks for the help Hailey, I needed it._

:D

Casi stood in front of the whiteboard, drawing on the whiteboard, mimicking math symbols and complex equations as she waited for the new math teacher to arrive. She had been called down to the particular classroom along with Leo, Briley, and Jayke and so she had gotten bored of waiting and starting doodling on the board. One of Casi's many hidden talents was her artistic skill, she enjoyed drawing to no end, half the time she was terrible at taking notes because she would doodle around them to the point she couldn't read the notes very well.

"Casi, while the whiteboard is an amazing canvas," a familiar voice said with amusement but a reprimanding tone of voice, "I'm not an art teacher and I don't want students and teachers believing that I can draw when I'm absolutely terrible."

Casi's head snapped up and she spun around, holding the black marker in one hand. Her blue eyes were widening as she recognized the voice. "Hailey!"

The other three looked up as well, well besides Briley who kept taking apart a mechanical pencil and a small sharpener and turning it into a vibrator for fun.

Hailey was standing in the doorway, now leaning against the door jam slightly with her twinkling emerald green eyes and black hair pulled up into a bun with two green pens holding it together. She was wearing a green collared blouse and black slacks, being her usual professional self except she had a hoodie on over the blouse so she looked more friendly and teen approachable. "Hey guys," she greeted with a smile. Hailey was just over twenty and a half, engaged to Forrestor, and with a degree in Mathematical Education. Not to mention she was Casi's best friend and Leo and Jayke's older sister.

Casi dropped her marker and darted over to her shorter friend before hugging her tightly, feeling immense relief at her best friend now being here. "When did you get here?!" She asked the woman who was like a sister to her. "And what are you doing here?"

Hailey smiled and hugged Cynthia back, smiling gently in her usual Hailey way, "well clearly I'm teaching math, and I just got here."

Leo strode over to his sister and Casi and joined the hug, turning the hug into a group hug, "you had us believing you'd be gone for ten years!" He complained, "and you just show up here?"

Hailey rolled her eyes at her younger brother's attitude, "I got a job here as the math teacher since when I was here two years ago I was practically teaching it anyway Leo, don't be so overdramatic."

Casi said nothing, happy her friend was here and feeling like everything was right in her world.

* * *

 _ **It's short but eh… I like how it ends so I'm gonna end it here :P**_


	3. Meet Jayke The Loner

_Jayke the Loner, and Leo's brother_

For a tall blonde jock, Jayke had surprising difficulty with locating him at the front of the school Friday morning after he had gotten picked up from the airport by the head of the sector he was is. _Curse my blindness and my brother's stupidly loud voice,_ Jayke grumbled to himself. He and the head of his sector were looking for the king Jock, a.k.a Jayke's older brother Leo, and had had no luck so far. What Jayke hoped was that he wouldn't have to roam the halls for his brother and accidentally run into him and whatever his girlfriend's name was in a school corridor. Although he could try to find of the other people he knew instead, his girlfriend Havla was here somewhere as well, and no doubt Casi was too since Leo wouldn't shut up about her all summer long. Which was ridiculous because he was already in a relationship and Jayke was sure Casi didn't get along with a drama queen like Leo's girlfriend. Having the said girlfriend over at their house more than a few times was enough for him, she was so annoying that he avoided her as much as possible. This year was going to be a little more interesting than the previous year with how his dorm sector was finally getting a new member after his older sister left two years ago. With that being said Jayke couldn't help but sigh, he knew the new arrival was going to be a girl and usually that meant gossip and chatting despite Casi's tendencies to avoid gossip like the plague.

"Jayke I don't see your brother," Firen told the young man, "is there anyone else who can help you to your dorm?"

"Unless you can locate Casi Larson not so much," Jayke grumbled in response and heard an interesting noise, the sound of a dog trotting alongside a slowly moving skateboard. Pets weren't allowed on the school grounds, why was there a dog?

Firen's voice was light and rather grateful as he addressed the person responsible for the odd combination of sounds. "Hello Briley," the head of Thunder smiled softly, Jayke could tell by the tones in his voice. "How're you?"

A female voice responded to the greeting, getting closer to them before Jayke heard the sound of a skateboard being picked up and soft footsteps against the asphalt. "I'm doing fine," Briley responded, her voice held a faint dreamy tone, almost like she was spaced out all the time. "Leo told me to find his brother, so I…" she abruptly trailed off and Jayke heard her start to fidget, drumming her fingers against something and tapping one of her feet against the ground. "So I…" the girl seemed to struggle, unable to verbalize what she was thinking.

Firen waited patiently for a moment for Briley to decide on what she was trying to say, Jayke could feel his patient calmness and slight warm nature toward the girl.

Jayke, on the other hand, had his blind gaze directed toward the girl, curious about her. He hadn't heard of a Briley at the school before, and a girl with a language problem no less. Which was a little fascinating, since it was something he hadn't dealt with outside of Leah's lessons.

"So I found him! Sorry," Briley said, annoyance in her tone of voice like she was highly annoyed at her inability to remember what she was trying to say for such a long period of time. "Shut up Lionel," she mumbled under her breath, "you could've helped you know."

Jayke blinked and focused, working hard to determine if there was anyone standing next to the girl when he couldn't hear any signs of another person. _What in the world?_

Firen smiled, "if you're here for Jayke he's right here," he pushed Jayke forward a few inches, "can you take him to his brother?"

Jayke heard Briley give a nonverbal response via her lack of verbal response and sighed slightly, rolling his eyes. "I'm blind," he deadpanned, "if you're nodding please say something verbally."

"You're blind?" Briley sounded curious and surprised, "what's it like?" She sounded like a child at a candy store, brimming with curiosity and drive for answers.

Jayke inwardly groaned, _great…_ "Yes I'm blind, and it's normal for me." He responded in a slight grumpy tone, "what's it like to see?" He shot back, usually, that stumped most people and they fell quiet.

"It's like being able to use light that enters through your eyes that creates a visual field of colors and other visual ques such as depth perception," Briley responded in a semi scientific way with a factual tone of voice, "it's like sacrificing the heightened abilities of another sense to be able to perceive color instead of higher tuned hearing, smell, or touch."

Jayke blinked, rather stunned by her response. Who was this girl? One second she was struggling to verbalize what she wanted to say and the next she's giving him a short scientific response. "Sounds about right," he said in a slightly awkward tone, still rather shocked by her response. "What's your name again?"

He felt thin fingers touch his palm as the girl touched his hand before he heard her sleeves rustle like she was holding her hand out for him to shake now, "Briley," Briley told him in a firm voice, "I'm… I haven't… This is my first year here." She said after redoing the sentence twice to avoid words she clearly couldn't remember.

Jayke shook her hand, a bit clumsily. Briley's hand was smaller than he had thought, her fingers were thin and long and by the smoother skin of her fingertips, he could tell that she worked with small curcuits and electricity a decent amount. By the way, her arm was positioned he could also tell that she was shorter than him by about two inches and was longer legged for her height. Her grip was firm and strong, and by that Jayke could tell she did some kind of athletics, by the way her earlier footsteps had been light yet almost thrumming with power he guessed she was a runner and not a basketball player like Casi and his brother. "Briley?" The name rolled of his tongue rather naturally, a more southern sounding name not really fitting the clearly highly intelligent girl in front of him. "I like it. I'm Jayke, Leo's younger brother."

"Adopted right?" Briley asked as she released his hand from the handshake, "Leo I mean, since you and Holly have similar features and Leo sticks out like a sore thumb."

Again this girl surprised him, she was more observant than he had expected her to be. "Yeah, I'm six months younger."

"I figured."

Jayke jumped when a dog's nose was pressed against his lower calf near his ankle and longer fur brushed against his jeans. "Starclan!" He yelped in surprise and nearly fell backward before Firen steadied him. "Who's the dog?"

Briley had a faintly amused tone of voice as she responded to his question. "That's Blissie, she's my service dog."

"Blissie?" Jayke said and listened for the dog, finding that she was now standing next to Briley's feet, her fur brushing against the girl's skin. "I'm surprised," he admitted, "you seem like a very capable person."

Briley laughed, her laugh light hearted and amused, "oh there's a lot more of me that meets the eye, or ears and nose to you."

Jayke smiled as well, his lips turning up at the corners.

* * *

"I see you've met our new arrival in the dorm sector," Casi teased Jayke lightly as they walked down the halls looking for Leo who had vanished a few hours ago. "What do you think?" She playfully nudged him a few times, "is she good enough for grumpy old Jayke?"

Jayke rolled his eyes and swatted her elbow away from his side, smiling slightly at the teasing. Oh, how he had missed his friends over most of the summer. "I don't have a standard, if I did you wouldn't qualify for it Casi."

"Ruude," Casi snorted as they reached the cafeteria and walked past the large white doors, "I would ace your qualification tests no problem, I'm a totally amazing person."

"I know a question you would fail," Jayke rolled his blind eyes, trusting Casi to lead where they were going and not crash into anyone.

"Oh really? Then tell me my failures Oh Mah One," Casi responded playfully to the teasing jab.

"Are you with my brother yet?" Jayke responded with another roll of his eyes and continued at Casi's lack of response, "Jayke one, Casi zero."

"Oh come on!" Casi complained, "what kind of nonsense question is that? That's out of my control!"

"Casi," Jayke said flatly with a hint of a teasing tone, "you have a crush so big on Leo and it's so obvious that I can _see_ it."

"Oh ha ha," Casi lightly pushed him, making sure not to hurt him or make him stumble, "you're sooo funny Jayke. But seriously," she turned more serious, "what do you think about Briley?"

"She's interesting," Jayke shrugged, "clearly has a high intelligence level despite what's wrong with her."

"High intelligence level is an understatement," Casi snorted, "Jayke that girl has an IQ level to rival Einstein. She's that smart."

"With her response to me retorting about what was seeing like I believe you."

"Jayke seriously, she's amazing," Casi told the other teen as they kept walking, still looking for Leo. "Briley has a near perfect GPA, a high IQ level, is capable of coding in her own language, is a runner, and freaking invents technology. All with the disabilities that hinder her."

Jayke's jaw slackened slightly, okay now that was both shocking and borderline unbelievable. "Wow… even I'm shocked."

"She has to be one of the coolest people I've gotten to meet this summer Jayke, Briley's very lost in her own world on a daily basis but StarClan above that girl has more knowledge than you, I, Hailey, and Leo do all put together." Casi told him, excitement in her voice, "We even tested it in a little game a few weeks ago."

"What do you mean?" Jayke asked, rather frustrated at missing all of the fun while with his dad in Florida. "What did you do?"

"We gave Briley a Russian dictionary and had her listen to a few conversations to get the accents," Casi explained, "within an hour and a half Briley had read the entire dictionary and could fluently converse with the Russian teacher Mr. Mulik in full Russian with a near perfect accent! She has an incredible short-term memory Jayke, she can't speak Russian anymore but she understands everything being said. From reading a dictionary and listening to a few people Jayke."

Jayke lightly shook his head, "I'm impressed, I don't really know what do say about that."

Casi laughed, "don't say anything just marvel at what our new dormmate can do."

"Oh I've been doing that since I met her this morning," Jayke snorted before he heard something and groaned, "found Leo," he complained, "and Iria."

Casi laughed at the first part and her mood grew more grumpy when he said Iria's name. "Where?"

"Upcoming corner," Jayke responded with a shrug and focused blind blue eyes on her, "what're you going to do?"

"Just wait and see. Oh, and be ready to run for your life." Casi said and disappeared around the corner.

Jayke groaned, "great…"

Moments later he heard a yell of surprise and Casi's name be called by a very angry sounding Iria.

"CASI LARSON! Leo bring her back here!"

He heard Casi's running footsteps and nearly tripped over air when she grabbed him by the wrist and bolted, cackling an evil laugh while racing away from Leo. Jayke could hear his brother's trotting footsteps like he didn't want to chase after the fellow athlete.

"Get back here Casi!" Iria shouted, her voice making Jayke's ears ring slightly and making him want to cringe and flinch.

"I'd rather not!" Casi shouted back, still dragging Jay behind her by the wrist, "you deserved it! Spit belongs in your mouth or in a Wet Willie! Not being exchanged with someone else!"

Jayke gagged, the mental image itself was definitely not something he wanted to think about. "Yuck Casi!" He complained, "that's not an image I want to remember!"

Casi laughed some more, "suck it up Jayke, you do the same thing when you're off kissing your girlfriend!"

Jayke shuddered, "something tells me they weren't kissing like Havla and I."

Casi laughed harder, "well if you have your tongue-"

"Blegh!" Jayke cut her off and flailed his arms in front of him, "gross! StarClan above I'm scarred for life! You are messed up Casi!"

Casi roared with laughter even as they turned a corner and escaped the furious Queen Bee and the amused Leo.

* * *

 _ **Casi oh Casi… Poor Jayke XD Sometimes I'm not quite sure what to do with you Casi, you're such a mess of a character! XD**_


	4. Meet Leo The Jock

**_~Snowcrystal of Thunderclan~_**

 _Yup, it's another human story collection! Okie Dokie, I think I may do a few chapters of before Briley's arrival, back when they were kids :P_

 _Briley has a service_ dog for _her mental issues when around people, it's needed because she lives in her own mind in her own reality for the most part._

 ** _~Jayfeather is my spirit animal~_**

 _I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter :P_

 ** _~Wandering Snowleaf~_**

 _Yup he's imaginary :P Which reminds me that I need to go back and change his name so that the names match the other chapters XD_

 ** _~Dawnshade49~_**

 _I like the idea! But how about it's Casi, Briley, Rose (Rosepetal), and Iria in one group and Jayke, Leo, and Brax (Breezepelt) in another with Hailey and Forrestor (Fallenleaves) as chaperones? :P_

 ** _~Poppyseedremedy~_**

 _I'm glad you enjoyed the story! :D_

 _Yeah, Jay's_ never _really been a big fan of Casi's blunt and sometimes ridiculous sense of humor :P_

 _I write the_ se _late at night when my house is quiet, so I'm not surprised that there are grammatical errors XD_

 ** _~Snowcrystal of Thunderclan~_**

 _Yup, it's another human story collection! Okie Dokie, I think I may do a few chapters of before Briley's arrival, back when they were kids :P_

 _Briley h_ as a ser _vice dog for her mental issues when around people, it's needed because she lives in her own mind in her own reality for the most part._

 ** _~Jayfeather is my spirit animal~_**

 _I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter :P_

 ** _~Wandering Snowleaf~_**

 _Yup he's imaginary :P Which reminds me that I need to go back and change his name so that the names match the other chapters XD_

 ** _~Dawnshade49~_**

 _I like the idea! But how about it's Casi, Briley, Rose (Rosepetal), and Iria in one group and Jayke, Leo, and Brax (Breezepelt) in another with Hailey and Forrestor (Fallenleaves) as chaperones? :P_

 ** _~Poppyseedremedy~_**

 _I'm glad you enjoyed the story! :D_

 _Yeah, Jay's never really been a big fan of Casi's blunt and sometimes ridiculous sense of humor :P_

 _I write these late at night when my house is quiet, so I'm not surprised that there are grammatical errors XD_

* * *

 _ **Life has been a mess for me lately, I broke my ankle and tore a ligament in the other foot at the end of April and I've had two surgeries within the last two months for them both. I'm currently wheelchair bound, unable to walk due to a surgery two weeks ago on the ligament foot and due to my massive amounts of muscle loss in the other leg. I'm in TWO boots, and being driven insane by lack of social interaction due to my mom keeping me pinned at the house, and my creativity it seriously having some issues. This is the first chapter I've uploaded for any of my stories this month, and I'm pretty happy with it. Sorry about my absences :(**_

 _ **Anyway, this chapter is almost pure Cinderblaze fluff (close friendship, Casi's teasing, and extremely close friendship borderline dating), so those who enjoy Cinderblaze low and behold! Cinderblaze galore! :D I think the next one is going to be Briarfeather, I have a few ideas regarding them and their complicated situation :P**_

 _ **Oh yeah, I need to ask you guys something, "How should Lionblaze (Leo) break up with Icecloud (Iria, loosely based) I have a few possible ideas, but I want to know what you guys think for it! :D**_

* * *

 _Meet Leo the Jock And… His Very Complicated Love Life_

Leo didn't even flinch at the slamming of the door and sighed with a roll of his eyes. It was almost routine for him to walk Iria back to her dorm and for her to slam the door in his face behind her without so much as a word to him. He fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose out of annoyance and instead tucked his hands into his pockets and walked slowly toward the stairs toward his dorm room on the third floor feeling rather tired from the day and irritated by his girlfriend's latest attitude. That girl was going to make him both broke and miserable, with both of those things already beginning to happen. He sighed, he better ask his friends for some money for tomorrow, he was supposed to take Iria and her friends some place or another, and knowing Iria he would end up with an empty wallet, give a million apologies and another few roses. He ignored some of the people calling his name and greeting him with a cool appearance and disappeared into the stairwell, jogging up the two sets of stairs in peace and quiet, something he didn't get a lot of.

As Leo jogged he glanced at his watch and almost missed a step in shock at the time. _Eleven-thirty?! StarClan above where did the time go?!_ He still had to finish his Math homework for the night and make sure he was up early tomorrow before six for a basketball practice that would no doubt take a few of his precious morning hours! He hurried his pace, nearly sprinting up the two flights of stairs to get to his dorm which was actually more like a tiny apartment with how the school was set up. Either way, he had a reputation to uphold with his pretty decent grades and spectacular sports abilities, he couldn't slack off because Iria had kept him out till an hour after curfew and had to be up in less than seven hours. He fumbled slightly with the keycard in his pocket for his dorm as he threw open the stairwell door and dashed to his dorm, jumping over a group of sophomores sitting there and sulking because their dorm mates probably locked them out. He heard them all call his name and ask him to help but he ignored them and kept going. Sure, he felt pretty bad for them, but at the same time, he had a lot to do and little time to do it. Plus he was sure he could get his brother or Casi, if the pretty athlete was awake, to go help them out.

Leo slid the keycard through the lock next to the dorm's door and pulled it open before he shoved it back into his back pockets and looked wildly around for his backpack and the homework he had sitting on the kitchenette counter.

"Looking for this?" Casi was sitting on the couch of the main area with a lap desk on her lap and his math homework in her right hand. She was sitting there with the tv on a low volume in a pale blue tank-top under a gray hoodie, black shorts that went halfway to her knees, and white socks. She seemed particularly relaxed, something Casi always seemed to be and had her left arm resting across the lap desk, hand curled weakly around a small stress ball.

Leo grinned in relief, "thank StarClan, I seriously thought I lost those!" He darted over to her and took the math sheets and glanced them over, finding them completed in his own sloppy handwriting. He raised one of his eyebrows and looked over at her both in surprise and slight amusement, "copying handwriting again are you?" Casi had always had this knack for copying handwriting, she was incredibly good at it, and she had the occasional habit of doing his homework for him when he was busy with his girlfriend, something he had always appreciated and told her time and time again. "Thanks, I really need to get some sleep before practice at six in the morning on a Saturday," Leon's tone was rather annoyed as he spoke, his couch was ridiculous having a practice that early on top of the track team running a practice race that same morning. He didn't look forward to being utterly smashed by the track team's times in the laps, and while he didn't mind being lapped by Briley, that girl ran like the wind, he didn't want to be lapped by anyone else. He was fast for his size and build, but he definitely wasn't the fastest runner on the basketball team, that was Casi. She was tall and thin, with pretty long legs and a lot of hidden muscle behind her slim build, she could go against him in an arm wrestle and narrowly lose, that was a testament of her strength.

"You need to relax," Casi responded to his words, her blue eyes now focused on him instead of the tv and the sketchbook she had on the lap desk, "and unwind Leo. You're going to end up stiff and sore from all of your muscles not relaxing properly."

Leon sighed and ran one hand through his now messy golden blonde hair, noticing briefly how Casi's gaze followed his movement, what she said was true, he did need to relax, but he also needed some sleep. "Maybe so but I need sleep, you of all people know how hard tomorrow's practice is going to be. We have to run against the track team and they have a new runner this year who hasn't lost a race yet." He went over to his backpack lying near the entrance and tucked the math sheets safely away.

Casi rolled her eyes and stood up before she walked over to him and grasped his wrist, "even more of a reason to make sure your body's not tenser than a rock when you wake up tomorrow morning." She pulled on his wrist and led him over to the couch before pushing him down and tossing him the remote. "Flip through the channels or something, relax and unwind before you go to sleep. Iria's clearly got you wound up if you're worried about running against the track team. They are runners, running is their job. Not to mention that it's practically Briley's life Leo," she pointed out after sitting on one of the tiny kitchen's counters and watching him, "that's what she does besides tech, just ask her."

Leo twisted on the couch and looked behind it and at the mentioned brunette lying on her stomach in the other corner of the room where she had miscellaneous circuits and technology scattered around her and her custom tablet playing some random cartoon she found on Netflix. She hadn't changed from her earlier outfit of jeans, an orange t-shirt, and a sunset-colored hoodie, probably not finding it necessary with how her mind worked. Briley had headphones on but Leo was sure that she could hear every word they were saying, she was cool that way in his opinion. "Is it Briley?"

"Yeah," Briley shrugged her shoulders and looked over at him, propping herself higher up on her arms in the process, her amber eyes almost glowing in the rather dark main room. "I like to run, it's my freedom."

"See," Casi said as Briley returned to being propped up on her elbows with her chin in her hands and watching her cartoon, "Briley lives to run, there's a reason people can't beat her Leo, not when you have that much of a drive toward something and you practice every day."

Leo nodded slightly before jolting up, "shoot, I forgot about the sophomores!"

"Took care of it," someone said as they walked in the front door in a grumpy grunt. "Told them Casi was going to blow out their eardrums with one of Briley's audio viruses."

Leo grinned and burst out laughing, that was one way to diffuse that particular situation. He could see Casi's Cheshire cat grin by the light given off by the tv and could tell that she was thinking about the prank that had no doubt inspired that, a prank she had done on Iria and some of the other popular girls.

"Awesome choice Jayke," Casi grinned and gave a mischevious cackle of laughter, "I bet that scared them out of their socks."

Jayke rolled his blind blue eyes and sat door on the floor leaning back against his dorm room door, "yeah, yeah, whatever. What's the party going on here? I don't know about you but it's not normal for all four of us to be up at this borderline ridiculous hour." He drawled half sarcastically.

"I was waiting for Leo to come back from Iria slamming a door in his face," Casi shrugged casually, "and doing homework."

"Casi made me sit here and relax," Leo rolled his eyes, "instead of going to sleep."

"I'm always up this late." Briley shrugged, her amber gaze still fixated on her tablet screen, apparently, that was a good part of the cartoon and actually kept her scattered attention. "I'm a… I'm a… I'm an owl," she settled for after retrying it once and failing.

Jayke rolled his eyes and stood up, "right. Good night all of you. Casi, Leo, behave." He then strode into his dorm room and softly shut the door behind him.

Casi then, at Leo's invitation, plopped down on the couch next to him and rested her feet on the coffee table, watching Leo with a partially intense stare.

Leo could read her expression well and knew what she was thinking. "Casi, I know what you're thinking." The expression she had on her face was one he had seen a long time ago, back before he was stuck with Iria as a girlfriend and back when they were "dating." It's wasn't wistful or anything, rather it the expression she used to have just before she kissed him or slipped out of his hold around her and complained about how "swapping spit was disgusting." At the time it had been a joke between them both, since he knew full well Casi only acted immaturely, she usually said it as a way to lighten a situation, she had never actually meant that kissing was gross, she just said it to hide her nerves or pretend she hadn't actually kissed anyone.

Casi rolled her eyes and pulled her legs up to her chest, sitting further away from him and speaking indignantly, "no you don't."

"Okay fine, I _knew_ what you _were_ thinking," Leo rolled his eyes with a snort and focused on the tv, feeling the stress of the day melt away at the light bickering with his friend, if he could call her just a friend, the interesting tv show he had found on the tv, and the earlier conversations with his friends and dorm-mates.

"Oh really?" Casi scoffed, he could tell that she already knew that he knew but was bickering with him both for his benefit and to deny it herself. It was something he saw a lot of, she would constantly deny having any sort of feelings for him after he had stopped taking her out of dates and instead had gotten together with Iria, and then later he would see her watching him, a longing expression on her face before someone or something called her attention. After a year she had begun to playfully annoy his girlfriend with her own actions, hiding him from her only to talk to him between friends when Iria assumed she was kissing him, kissing him on the cheek, completely mess up his hair and run off, give her a Wet Willie if she found them kissing, or sometimes on very rare occasions she would kiss the corner of his mouth while in front of Iria just to annoy her.

Leo would never admit it, but he enjoyed having Casi playfully get in the way on occasion. He missed not being in a relationship with Iria and instead of being toeing the borders of the friend zone with Casi. Because Casi made it fun, she had a kick out of goofing off, sneaking around, and letting him tickle her, and she didn't have a problem with other girls being around him. Not to mention Casi never drained his wallet, she was stubborn and hot-headed, preferring to pay herself instead of him doing it, and she hated shopping, it bored her to tears. Speaking of money, he should probably ask Casi and Briley before either of them went to bed. "Cas, Briley, can I ask you two a favor?" He asked in a semi-weak tone, not really wanting to ask them what he was about to ask them.

Casi sighed, "You need money again don't you?" the playful tone had gone from her voice only to be replaced by exasperation. "Iria drain your card and wallet?"

Leon nodded sheepishly, "yeah…"

"I don't have a lot laying around Leo-" Casi started to say before Briley cut her off.

"It's my turn," Briley took off her headphones and stood up, pulling her small wallet from her pocket before pulling out a credit card, "have at it," she shrugged and handed it to him.

Leon gawked at her, did she quite realize how much his girlfriend cost him? "Briley, do you know how much money Iria has me spend?"

Briley shrugged, "I don't need to know." She walked back over to her circuits and tablet, "I design tech remember?" She pointed out, "I have more…" Her expression blanket to confusion, "more… more…" she gave up, "more than all of you combined."

Leon blinked, why were his friends all so rich? Casi was an artist, during the summer she painted piece after piece, after piece, and Briley had he believed something close to a net worth of a millionaire at this point with all of her cool tech and running scholarships. Not to mention that Briley and Casi had persuaded him into trying stocks this year, and so far he had gained over twice the original amount thanks to Briley's insane equations for the market that made his brain hurt to think about. "Briley, you have legit go buy a house kind of money, where you giving it to me?"

"You're my friend, you need it." Briley shrugged and then added something on like she had just had the idea, "go take Casi somewhere nice, just don't call it a date or Iria will kill you." Leo could tell how serious and passionate about what she had said because she didn't once forget a word.

Casi blushed, Leo could clearly see, and yet she didn't tell Briley off, probably wanting Leo to go through with it.

Leo sighed, "okay, but Briley you're the one telling Iria." Briley was a new kid at the school, but she held a decent amount of weight at the school due to her being the fastest track runner and her other records in track since she was in elementary school.

Briley gave a bobbed nod in response as she put her headphones back on and returned her attention to her tablet, but no doubt staying alert to her surroundings.

Leo looked over at the girl sitting near him on the couch and for a few moments simply watched her, studying his best friend.

Casi let him for a few moments, watching the tv for a few moments before she stood up, "come on Leo, we both need to get some sleep. Briley, don't stay up too late okay?"

Leo turned off the tv, leaving the room in almost pitch black darkness, and stood up, "right, tomorrow's insane practice."

"Don't worry about it Leo, keep a level head and you'll do fine," Casi told him, and Leo felt her lips against the corner of his mouth, being careful to not properly kiss him and also to make sure the kiss wasn't pure friendly. A second later she was gone and Leo sighed, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"G'night Cas," he said to thin air since he knew she wasn't there anymore and started toward his room.

"Casi heard you," Briley told him quietly, "she always does."

* * *

 _Leo looked blurrily around, confused and disoriented. What happened? The eight-year-old blinked a few times, he could hear police car sirens, and ambulance sirens as well, what were they doing nearby? "Dad?" He croaked, as suddenly everything came back to him, the truck smashing into the car from the side and causing it to roll where another car collided with the back, sending it off of the road._

 _He heard a groan from the front seat and guessed it was his dad, The car was currently on its side, on the passenger side where Casi had been sitting… "Casi!" He swung his head from side to side, looking for his best friend who had been in the car with him and his dad. "Casi!" Then he spotted her, her seat buckle had snapped, leaving the other eight-year-old lying on the door in a rather uncomfortable and crumpled position. She was lying upside down on her left side, head tilted rather awkwardly, and her left arm was pinned, pinned between the passenger seat and the door, with part of her seat belt wrapped tightly around the arm. She was completely out, not stirring at the sound of her name at all. A fire flickered near her, the floor of the passenger seat was slowly beginning to burn, along with the grass in the window of the passenger seat._

 _Leo felt his fear and worry spike higher at the sight of the blood that covered the door behind his friend, the smashed window had some splattered on the broken glass like Casi had broken it. "Dad!" He wailed, amber eyes staring in horror at his friend and partially dangling from his own seat, "Dad! Casi's bleeding and there's fire!"_

 _A moment later he saw someone come around to the broken windshield wearing firefighter gear and leaned in, looking around the car and paling slightly, "There are two kids in the car!" He told someone, "One's awake and looks fine, the other's on the back passenger side door with a snapped seatbelt!"_

 _It was a blur for Leo as the people tore open the roof of the car, doused the flames, and got him and his dad out before focusing on Casi. He watched from a safe distance, watching anxiously as they carefully managed to get his friend out of the car. At some point, she had woken up because now he could hear her sobbing and occasionally screaming as they pulled her out._

 _Beside him, Leo's father was cursing under his breath, "StarClan above… Casi… I can't believe this happened!"_

 _Leo hugged his father for comfort, unable to tear his amber eyes away from the people who finally got Casi out of the mangled car. He was led to the ambulance and his father boosted him up into the big car where they sat on benches while Casi was put on a stretcher and went in with him, she had a blanket from the shoulders down, but Leo could see red seeping into the blanket and started crying, climbing onto his father's lap and crying into his shirt, wanting the whole thing to go away, "Casi's hurt Dad!" He cried, "Casi's really hurt!"_

"Leo it's just a dream! Wake up!" Leo jolted awake with a howl and nearly clocked his brother in the face were it not for him ducking in time. "Great StarClan! What were you dreaming of?!" Jayke snapped, blind eyes clouded with sleep and he sounded very very irritated.

"Where's Casi?" Leo mumbled in response, looking wildly around for the girl. He threw off his blankets and got up, pushing past his brother and running toward Casi's room before shoving the door open. He breathed a deep sigh of relief at seeing his friend asleep, safe and sound. She was lying on her right side, her black hair spread out like a halo, and her blankets tangled around her body. He was still shaken, feeling like Casi was hurt and nearly comatose all over again. So he went over to her, sat down on the edge of the bed and roughly shook her, "Casi!" He almost yelled her name before pulling her into a sitting up position, his breathing still heavy and uneven.

Casi groaned a complaint and mumbled something about metallic basketballs before she forced her eyes half open and looked sleepily at Leo, "wha?" She spoke in a sleepy slurr, "I'm s'eeping Leo."

Leo breathed a breathy laugh and held her close to him, burying his nose into her hair and taking a deep breath of the ocean smell from the shampoo she used. "StarClan Casi," he breathed, "I thought you were injured again."

Casi leaned into Leo's hold and her eyes drooped shut, she then drowsily moved a little closer and rested her head against Leo's muscular chest with her eyes still closed. "You're warm Leo…" She murmured in a sleep-ridden slur.

Leo laughed slightly at her words and held her even closer, having issues shaking the cobwebs of the dream from his mind. "I was so scared," he told her despite knowing she probably had no idea what he was saying, "that crash still haunts me."

Casi seemed to register some of what he said and pushed him slightly so that she could flop back onto her back on the bed with mostly closed eyes. She then patted the other side of the bed and spoke to him, "stay here if you want," she mumbled in a clearer tone, "but I'm an active sleeper." She warned the end of the sentence was a sleepy mumble.

Leo took the invitation and went around the bed and onto the other side before lying down on his side and watching Casi, who was one of the deepest sleepers had had ever met. She was also the most active and affectionate, with the habit of hugging or cuddling with whatever was next to her. It was something Hailey had complained about back when they did sleepovers and Leo knew about both from her and because he's had her fall asleep next to him on the couch before, she was a very clingy person in her sleep. Leo reached out and gently touched Casi' face, looking at the faint scars on her left cheek that came from the crash itself, the broken glass from the window.

Casi mumbled about annoying flies and swatted at his hand, complaining. Or she tried to swat at his hand but her left arm only twitched and lifted up less than half an inch.

Leon grasped her left wrist and gently pulled the arm toward him before he looked at it, looking at the scarred skin. Casi's arm had surgery scars, scars from the massive pieces of glass that had embedded themselves in her arm, scars from the seat belt cutting her, and from the elbow up had burn scars, from the passenger seat floor and passenger seat catching fire. Leo shifted closer to her and gently pressed a kiss to her almost numb knuckles, his lips brushing over the calloused and rough scarred skin. _I'm so glad you made it, I don't know what I would've done after if you hadn't made it too._ He gently uncurled her fingers and pressed her palm against his bare chest, one of the only areas of the arm and hand that wasn't highly scarred, and the fingers twitched slightly.

Casi moved closer to him, now out cold completely asleep, and snuggled close to him, mumbling in her sleep about gunpowder and blue raspberries.

* * *

Leo woke up to Casi's alarm insistently going off and groaned not moving from his position lying on his back, wanting to go back to sleep after last night's nightmare. However he had to smile in a sleepy fashion, Casi had somehow pulled him into an odd position, with her arms curled around his head, nose nestled in his hair, the side of his head was nestled against her neck and upper chest, and she had one leg drawn up at the knee with her ankle and foot below his body while the other leg was pinned beneath him. Casi was warm, her body heat helped make sleep seem more inviting and he had to admit that he didn't really mind how close she was to him right now.

However Casi seemed to have other ideas relating to more sleep, she unwrapped one of her arms from around his head and managed to slap her alarm clock, knocking it to the floor in her typical Casi fashion. However otherwise she didn't move, but Leo could feel her deep sleep breathing against his head change to a more normal lighter breathing that barely ruffled his golden hair, signaling that she was awake. She gave an inaudible mumble before she spoke loud enough for him to hear her, "Leo, I swear you're beginning to develop a habit of this," she grumbled.

"A habit of what?" Leo responded, his voice perfectly clear and a little rough from sleep.

"Coming in here," Casi responded, her voice still muffled from her head's position. "I swear you're in here once a month to once a week sometimes."

"I have nightmares," Leon responded simply, and let his eyes stay closed, feeling the lull of sleep pulling on him again.

"I know, but when it gets to the point where I half expect you to be here its too much." Casi reasoned even as she lifted her head and yawned, temporarily too sleepy for her logic to really kick in.

"At least I don't snore," Leo snorted, "you do."

"No, I _breathe_ , you barely breathe at all," Casi grumbled, "Hailey never said I snored, and that's after sleeping over with her for what, six years?"

Leon could tell Casi was beginning to doze off by the tones in her voice and reluctantly moved, blinking only to find her right arm blocking his vision. "Cas, I literally can't see, and this is your fault."

"StarClan above I swear next time I'm locking my room door to keep you out," Casi grunted and removed her arms, using her right to pull her left away from his head, before she completely moved and sat up. She then gave him a nice and rather violent jab to the stomach, "you know I'm an active sleeper, what I do in my sleep is not my fault."

"Oh come on," Leo whined and sat up himself, "You know that I get terrified for your life Cas."

Casi rolled her eyes and leaned toward him, looking a little sleepy as she did so "I know, which is why I won't even though you piss me off in the morning."

Leo grinned relieved, "thank the stars."

Casi smiled as well and she leaned even closer, her breath washing over his face and for a moment it was like she was about to kiss him, her lips a hair's breath from his. However, she abruptly jerked back and looked cross at herself. "Sorry," she muttered in apology, the earlier sleep in her eyes had now vanished to be replaced with alertness. "Won't happen again," she promised and slid off the bed before she picked up her duffel bag from the small closet and unzipped the duffel to grab her uniform. "Wasn't thinking clearly."

Leo didn't bother saying anything about how she had done the same thing before more than a few times, never actually kissing him but getting pretty close, and got off of the bed as well, "I know," he said to her last sentence and hugged her from behind for a few seconds before he moved toward the door, "thanks Cas, the nightmares aren't fun." He knew she had them too, once or twice he had heard her howl in pain like she was reliving the nightmare at night and other times he had jerked awake to his door opening and staying open for a while. She never actually entered the room, probably because he wasn't hers, he was Iria's, but when she left he could usually get a glimpse of her blue eyes before she left.

Casi nodded before she pointed toward the door, "shoo, we have the practice to go to."

Leon nodded and left, shutting the door behind him before going into his own room and grabbing his own duffle bag and uniform. _I need to figure out something to get rid of Iria, I'm getting tired of pretending._

* * *

 _ **What do you guys think? And which part is your favorite part of this chapter? :D :D**_


	5. Briley's Issues In Action

**~Wandering Snowleaf~**

 _Nope, just one XD_

 _Yup, Hollyleaf is a little old, Lionblaze is definitely adopted, and Briaright is amazing! :D Thanks! I'm glad you liked them all! :D_

 ** _~iDragonSpyro~_**

 _Yeah, Briley's just goofing off and building a random device in the middle of the room :D_

 ** _~Snowcrystal of Thunderclan~_**

 _That it does :P Leo's love life is truly a complete mess :P_

 _I was thinking more along the lines of something more dramatic :P_

* * *

 _Briley's Issues In Action, And Leo, You Messed Up_

Briley was rather secluded for the most part, everyone knew that and just assumed she didn't like dealing with people. However, that wasn't the case. Sure, Briley didn't always enjoy having people around her, but she wasn't secluded because she didn't enjoy being around people. She was secluded because she didn't want people messing with her technology and plans, if someone got ahold of her blueprints the teenage genius could be in some big trouble. On top of that, Briley liked to have a routine, she liked having her time organized exactly the same way every day with times for random things to happen and special times for her to act as impulsive as she wanted. Nobody had seen the inside of her room yet, besides herself and Jayke, until today. When Leo was tasked to find the runner so that he could deliver a letter that he had been given by Firen.

"Briley?" Leo called around the dorm room, immediately noticing the lack of the brunette in the corner covered in pieces of miscellaneous technology and empty blueprint paper. "I've got a letter I'm supposed to give to you!" He wilted, he really didn't have time to hunt down his friend when he was supposed to be at Iria's dorm in less than ten minutes.

"I think she left Leo," Casi spoke to him, her tone was strained, and clearly she wasn't happy with what he was doing tonight, especially when she was stuck in the dorm and off of the team because of a sprained ankle. He knew she was sitting on the couch with her mentioned injury iced and elevated, but didn't dare look over at her, knowing exactly how much worse looking her in the eye would make him feel. "So you should probably leave before your girlfriend hunts you down."

Leo sighed and went over to Briley's room door, hoping to put down the letter somewhere and go before Iria did kill him. "Casi, calm down. I know you're angry but you need to chill."

"Excuse me?" Casi snapped back hotly, "says the one going to let his girlfriend haul him to some kind of party off campus! Leo this is the dumbest idea in your long history of dumb ideas!"

"Casi, I'm going to the party, end of discussion," Leon told her coolly before twisting the doorknob to the bedroom door in front of him.

"Don't call me to come and get you if something's spiked by the Seniors," Casi snapped angrily at him before mumbling inaudibly under her breath.

Leo rolled his eyes, "I promise not to call you if something is spiked and I need a ride." He then pushed open the door and his eyes widened along with his jaw-dropping. "Woah… Briley what have you been up to?"

Briley's room was meticulously organized, with drawers and shelves on every wall that were clearly built by hand judging by the carved two-by-fours sitting on the floor near the closet. Her desk was huge and clearly very expensive, covered in a ridiculous amount of blueprints and mechanical sketches along with white markers and pencils. The drawers and shelves had cork boards along the front of them where many pictures of different problems that the world and people in general faced were strung up connected by string and behind most of the pictures were a rolled up blueprint. Next to each picture was a tiny notebook some of which were open and contained a lot of Briley's half messy scrawl. The drawers contained about a thousand different kinds of metal pieces, computer chips, legos, and other misc. Tech pieces, while the shelves held prototypes, more blueprints, a good amount of the trophies she had earned from running over the years, and some normal stuff. The floor was a mess, however, mostly covered in legos, wires, tiny broken pieces of tech, and crumpled up balls of different colored paper. Briley's bed, bedside table, and drawer chest were all shoved into the closest corner and wall to the door, and they were rather normal, looking like a perfectly normal person's space. Her bed was a mess, with the blankets being messy probably from her sleeping in it this morning, the sheets were white while the bedding itself was various shades of orange, which was clearly her favorite color.

"Casi…" Leo spoke in a rather awed tone, gazing around the cramped space, "have you ever been in Briley's room?"

"No, and I'm not listening to you," Casi snapped at him, "you're being an absolute arse and I'm not willing to deal with you right now."

"No seriously Casi," Leo turned to look over at her, "have you ever been in her room? This girl is seriously nuts."

"Briley is not crazy," Casi told him coolly, "just because she likes technology and wants to solve the world's problems doesn't make her nuts Leo."

"Talk to her room," Leo looked back into the room, "it's practically a plotting and storage space-"

"What're you…" Briley had walked in the front door and she didn't look to calm about him barging into her space. Her amber eyes were round with panic and unease, she was trying to speak, looking for the words that kept vanishing into thin air for her. "Why…" She seemed to be having issues just getting out a proper sentence. "My…" She looked cross with her language abilities, but even more confused and panicked as to why Leo had gone into her space, her safe haven. She struggled to find what to say, her grip around Blissie's leash tightening till her knuckles went white.

Leo spun around, his eyes widening as well, "Briley!"

Briley didn't respond, her eyebrows furrowing in irritation. Instead, she yanked out her earbuds, she apparently had been running judging by her appearance and threw her phone and the earbuds onto the floor along with Blissie's leash. Her phone screen shattered but Briley didn't notice, instead, she put her hands behind her head and turned her back on Leo, moving toward the kitchen space while still working on getting her brain to work properly. "Why were… what…" Her words were scrambled, and clearly, she couldn't speak even a sentence, too frustrated, panicked, and confused to even string together a few words properly.

Casi's blue eyes had widened and she was watching Briley move around, worried about what they were about to witness. "Briley, Leo didn't mean to go into your space," she tried to tell her before flinching when Briley, in response to her words, knocked a glass off of the counter and onto the floor on purpose to get her to stop talking.

Briley threaded her fingers of one hand through her dark brown hair and let her hand rest just above her left ear. "Stop… No…Space!" She angrily slammed a fist down onto the counter at her inability to even tell Casi to stop talking. Leo's actions had really scrambled her already scrambled brain.

Casi bit her lip and snatched her phone from next to her before texting Jayke Jayke was closer to Briley than both her and Leo and usually he could understand what was going on in her head while she couldn't tell them what was going on.

"StarClan above," Leo spoke hurriedly, "Briley I didn't mean to upset you, I just wanted to put this letter down because I needed to get going." He started to move toward her despite Casi shaking her head, "I really gotta go, Briley."

"Stop!" Briley blurted out, struggling to complete the sentence. "I-I not, stop." She groaned in frustration at the nonsense sounding sentence and whirled around, facing a wall as she took a deep breath, her expression frustrated as she struggled to even communicate with them at all. It was almost like she wasn't all there anymore, stuck between two points and unable to register them both.

Leo felt guilt weigh down his stomach as he realized that Briley was also blinking back frustrated tears, he hadn't meant to upset her at all, but he had and he felt terrible. She couldn't even communicate with them what she was thinking, and she wasn't responding to Blissie pushing at the back of her knees with her nose and trying to force Briley into sitting down.

The front door opened, and a very ruffled Jayke stepped in, with Havla right behind him. "Stay there," he muttered to his girlfriend before speaking louder, "where's Briley?"

In response to his words, Blissie barked sharply, getting his attention before whining and jumping up in front of Briley and pushing at her, trying to get her to sit down so that she could actively do what she was trained to do.

Jayke carefully maneuvered his way over to Briley, listening to Blissie's whines and pleads as a beacon to get to her. He grasped Briley's arm just above the elbow and knocked his foot against the back of her knees on one side, forcing Briley to the floor. "Leo, what in the wide world did you do now?" He snapped at his brother as he pushed Blissie away from Briley and grasped both of her arms. "Briley, Briley listen to me," he spoke using the techniques Leah had taught him specifically for Briley since he had medical training. "Briley, who, what, and why." This way he could find out what happened and she wouldn't have to struggle to get a complete sentence out.

Briley blinked and her amber eyes refocused on Jayke, she recognized what he was doing and struggled to do as he asked. "Okay," she managed to say properly, and waited for his first question, working on the word as she waited.

"Who?" Jayke asked her, his blind eyes fixed on the brunette's face, "Who Briley?" The reason for saying her name with each question was that it reigned in her focus each time, it made sure that she knew each question was directed at her, and that only she could answer.

"Le-Leo," Briley responded a moment later after rewording the syllables correctly.

"Leo and what Briley?"

"Space," Briley responded as she grasped Jayke's hand and made him point at her, poking herself in the stomach. "Me."

"Leo went into your room, why Briley?" Jayke asked, putting together the pieces from what she had said and from what he knew about her.

"My letter," Briley responded, her amber gaze had been unwavering on Jayke's blind blue eyes the entire time. "He… had a… letter." She slowly said, working on saying a full sentence and succeeding this time.

Jayke smiled at her, "good job, why did you get upset?"

Briley shrugged, "my space." She told him rather simply, "I don't… like people… my space." She missed one word, but she seemed to be able to speak properly for the most past now.

Jayke gave a nod, knowing that she could see it, "I don't think anyone likes people in their rooms," He snorted with a roll of his blind eyes. He was over doing his facial expressions to help Briley refocus and organize her thoughts properly. While she watched his expression changed, her mind resorted itself, it was something he had picked up on a little while back while Leah had been teaching both of them how to do this technique which he had now tweaked to work better. "Leo's an idiot," he told her, making sure she could keep up with his words, "he's always been the barge in first, ask questions later kind of idiot." He had been in her space before, she had shown him, through touch and sound, what she had her room organized as and while sure it could be seen as weird, it was also pretty cool.

"Yeah, I…" Briley's grasp around his hand slackened and her expression blanked to confusion, and Jayke could tell she had simply forgotten a word this time. "I noticed," she said with a smile a moment later.

Jayke gently pulled his hand from her grasp and let Blissie get close to her, sitting in her lap and licking her face, a way to help calm and reassure Briley and her scattered brain. He was keenly aware of Havla standing about a foot behind him, especially with what Briley did next. She grasped his left hand and quietly signed into his palm, her amber gaze fixed on him. Jayke's cheeks flushed and he pulled his hand away from her, "Okay," He said simply before turning to his brother, "Leo, stay out of her room." He told him simply, hiding exactly what Briley had signed to him and didn't say out loud. "If you're going to the party then get your butt into gear, Casi if I catch you about to stand up again until I check off that the sprain is healed I will confine you to bed rest, and neither of you bothers Briley. Understand?"

A meek chorus of "I understand," came from the athlete and the jock.

* * *

"Cassi," Leo complained, pleading with the athlete, "you know I hate cars," he reminded her, "and I don't want to let someone else drive."

"Leo, you promised you wouldn't call me," Casi responded back, and by the tones, in her voice, she was pretty determined not to go get him, "and there's no way I'm getting involved with the seniors getting underage juniors intoxicated Leo. Dealt with that once, and I'm not doing it again."

"Cassi please!"

"No Leo! Wait, hold on," Casi said a moment later and Leo heard the mic being covered and everything muffled significantly.

Leo ran one hand over his face, he was lucky, he only had one of the spiked drinks that Iria was so kind to not telling him about and that was enough to screw with what he said and what impulses he acted on. However he also had to take Iria back as well and there was no way in the world he was going to drive right now, especially with the crash nightmare bothering him.

"Okay, I'm not coming to get you," Casi told him and Leo gave a groan, "but Briley will, I've driven with her before and she has an autopilot device in her car."

Leo smiled, "thanks Cas, I love you, you are amazing."

"Leo don't say that," Casi pleaded with him, "please don't."

Leo blinked before he agreed, "okay, sorry?"

Casi's voice was a little shaky when she spoke next, "I'll make something to help kick the spike, hang tight till Briley gets there." She hesitated, as if she was about to say something, but didn't and hung up.

It took the ten minutes of waiting for Briley to arrive for Leo to realize why Casi had sounded so shaken up and swear under his breath because of it. "I'm so sorry Casi," he groaned after swearing angrily at himself, "I can not believe I said that."


	6. Casi's Tears

**_Two chapters in a day! Impressive ish for me! :D_**

* * *

 _Casi's Tears_

 _ **(It's missing a beginning but I'm lazy and tired, it's 3:30 am at the moment and I've snapped out of my hyperfocus so I'm also idealess :P)**_

Casi's blue eyes were tear ridden and she stomped one foot, the injured one and yet didn't flinch, "because _I love you_ , Leo! And I can't ever be with you so I don't want to hear you say words you really mean when it feels like you're stabbing a knife here!" She put a hand to her heart, "I may act like I don't really have a care in the world Leo, but it's not true!"

Leo looked at her, sadness in his gaze, "Casi you know I don't actually have feelings for Iria-"

"Maybe not but that doesn't mean I can be with you now can I?" Casi snapped at him, "I know you still have feelings for me, Leo, even if you can't see it, and I have to watch you every day with Iria who practically flaunts you like a trophy! Just because you don't have feelings for Iria doesn't mean you're not with her! I can handle being just best friends, you giving me an assortment of nicknames, playing together on the basketball team, almost never going anywhere with you even with the rest of our friends, giving you money because Iria's making you broke, sometimes waking up confused because you had a nightmare about the crash and want to make sure I'm okay, and even never kissing you despite how badly I want to all the time! But I can not handle you telling me you love me when I can't be with you!" She blubbered the end, the athlete almost dissolving into tears at the end of her small rant and explanation. Yet she remained standing in front of the counter, looking at him.

Leo didn't say anything, instead he just stared at her, Casi rarely ever told anyone what she was feeling, she was an expert at hiding her emotions behind an immature and goofy personality. He just watched as Casi sniffled and used her hoodie sleeve to rub at her eyes, not completely sure what he was supposed to do now. He didn't want to leave and give Casi no response, but he didn't know what to say.

Casi sniffled a little more before laughing bitterly, "I had my chance and I blew it, I know. But now the whole damn _**(Story is rated T for a reason :P)**_ school wants us apart." She used her right index finger to brush away the remaining of the escaped tears while she pushed back the rest and hid them from him, pulling herself together.

Leo shook his head, "No you didn't," he said firmly, "you didn't blow it, Casi."

Casi gave another bitter laugh, "doesn't matter, I've already lost the second chance, Leo, I can't compete with Iria, she may be the most annoying person on the planet but she's practically perfect." She looked away from him and spoke bitterly, "I'm just the disabled athlete of a best friend, Iria's top of the school prefect. See, unbeatable."

Leo didn't respond, instead, he moved forward and abruptly and firmly kissed Casi full on the mouth, cradling her face in his hands.

Casi nearly fell backward from Leo's force and her injured ankle and used the counter to brace herself before she melted into the kiss and looped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her. For those thirty seconds, Casi felt like they were back a year ago where Leo kissed her like this all the time and she had felt invincible, able to do anything while she had Leo's love and reassuring kiss.

Leo pulled back first and looked at her, amber eyes gentle and caring. He rested his hands on the counter on either side of her, standing in front of her inches away.

Casi, on the other hand, kept her eyes firmly closed and leaned forward and up a little, not wanting the moment to end and have to return to her present reality.

"Casi," Leo spoke quietly, "you can do anything you want to do, I've seen you do it before."

Casi reluctantly opened her eyes and looked at him, "maybe," she murmured before her expression turned to a plea, "can you… kiss me again?" She asked in an even quieter tone, "Please?"

"Casi…" Leo groaned and leaned back slightly, "I'm not supposed to have kissed you in the first place remember?"

Casi narrowly managed to hide the flinch of hurt at the near instant regret at kissing her again but pretended she hadn't been hurt by his words anyway. "Humor me," She said with a lopsided smile.

Leo looked conflicted, "Casi you know I'm not supposed to have kissed you before. I shouldn't have done it."

This time Casi visibly flinched at his words, and immediately dropped her gaze to the space between them. "I need my bubble back," she spoke in a mumble, refusing to meet his gaze anymore. Her lips still tingled from the kiss, and she could still feel the warmth from his hands on her face, making his words hurt even more.

Leo realized he had made a mistake and tried to correct it, "Casi I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that it's wrong for me to kiss you right now."

Casi flinched again, this time worse than last time, both phrases practically ringing in her ears. "Leo move," she asked quietly, tears pricking at her eyes once again.

Leo groaned and hung his head for a few moments before he looked at her again, "I didn't mean either of those like that Cas I swear!"

"Leo move," Casi pleaded with him, not wanting to completely break down and cry in front of him. She felt like he had taken the knife in her chest and jammed it further in before twisting it. "Please move…"

Leo looked down at her, his amber eyes full of sadness as he noticed how she was hiding her eyes from him and how she was leaning back away from him. He moved to try and raise her chin but she jerked her head away from his hand and he saw her lower lip trembling, a signal that she was going to start crying. He rarely saw her cry, she usually hid it all. In fact, the last time he had seen her cry was last year after the basketball game, where Iria had kissed him when he had gone up to the dorm to change.

* * *

 _The moment the front door opened Leo noticed the sound of someone sniffling, and he walked into the dorm, both looking for the source and going to go change._

 _Then he spotted Casi standing in the little kitchenette thing currently standing in front of the sink and washing dishes, from what he didn't know since they both had been at the game._

" _Hey Cas, you okay?" He asked quietly and moved to try and see her face to see what was wrong._

" _Nope," Casi responded, her voice was thick with emotion, "but it's okay, go and celebrate with Iria."_

 _Leo blinked, "what do you mean Casi?"_

 _Casi sighed and dried off her hands, Leo idly noticed that she was still wearing the exoskeleton thing on her left arm before she spun around to face him. "You finally got yourself a girlfriend so go on, celebrate with her."_

 _Leo looked confused, "how? I don't have anything she would think is worthy enough Casi. This is Iria we're talking about."_

" _Believe me, I know who we're talking about," Casi told him stiffly before she dug into her back pockets and pulled out a pair of reservation tickets, "these should work, right?"_

 _Leo gawked at her, the tickets were to a particularly fancy restaurant Funplex, somewhere he had only been a few times. "Yeah, but where did you get these?"_

" _I bought them," Casi told him simply, her blue eyes were red-rimmed and tired like she wanted to go to bed and not wake up for a year._

 _Leo stared at her, "you bought these? What for?"_

 _Casi swallowed the lump in her throat and shrugged, "us." She responded, her voice barely managing to stay even. "I bought them for the two of us."_

 _Leo blinked before he continued to stare at her, now thoroughly gobsmacked. "You bought these for us? You were going to ask me out?"_

 _Casi nodded and swallowed again, "and to actually go out with me yeah." She gestured toward the tickets, "but you and Iria should have a blast so they won't go to waste."_

 _Leo looked at her, a rather pained expression on his face, "StarClan above Cas! Why didn't you tell me? I never would've said yes to Iria asking me to go out with her!"_

 _Casi's blue eyes darted down before she forced herself to make eye contact with him, "I was scared," she fidgeted slightly in a semi-shy fashion, "I've never asked a guy out before, I don't usually like romance remember?"_

" _Maybe so, but knowing you there's more than just the tickets," Leo pointed out, his tone going a little hoarse, "what else did you plan?"_

 _Casi swallowed for the third time, "I had Hailey come and help me do some fancy decorations here in the dorm, and I remembered some of the stuff we used to make as kids so I did that too."_

 _Leo looked more guilty, "you made the more bars?"_

 _Casi nodded and continued speaking, "The banner Iria used on you was actually mine, I had fun with Hailey setting up a short scavenger hunt style thing to the tickets," her voice cracked, "and I got a dress for it too." She averted her gaze to the floor, tears gathering in her eyes. "Since the place is fancy and expensive I made sure I could get in and bought a dress to it."_

 _Leo swallowed the lump now growing in his throat, "what color?"_

" _Silver," Casi told him quietly, "with blue accents to you know."_

" _To go with your eyes," Leo said hoarsely, "I remember telling you that silver accents the silver hints in your eyes." Casi hated formal wear, everyone in the school knew that, but she had gone out of her way to buy a dress for him on top of everything else she had done._

 _Casi bobbed her head, "yeah…"_

" _Can I see it?" Leo asked her softly, "please?"_

 _Casi reluctantly nodded and went over to her room, Leo on her heels. She pushed open the closet and took out the dress for him, letting him see it while she tucked her hands into her denim shorts pockets. "I thought it was nice."_

 _Leo almost wanted to cry, it was beautiful, and Casi herself was already beautiful. "It's really pretty," he admitted and looked at her, immediately noticing how her lower lip was trembling despite her biting it and how tears were threatening to spill from his best friend's beautiful blue eyes. "Cas I'm so sorry," he whispered and pulled her into an embrace, "I totally ruined everything for you." For a moment Casi clung to him, hiding her face in his chest and neck and trembling from how hard she was holding back her tears._

" _Casi?" Another voice spoke softly, and Leo had to look up at the confused and concerned face of his older sister. "What happened?"_

 _Casi immediately shoved Leo away and threw herself into her friend's arms and started bawling, completely falling apart, "nothing worked out," she sobbed into Hailey's shirt, "I don't get to be with Leo at all anymore!" She howled to her, bawling her heart out and seeking comfort in her best friend while her world was falling apart into pieces._

 _Leo could only watch, feeling his heard squeeze at Casi's heart shattering and the cracking of his own._

 _Hailey held Casi close, murmuring words into her ear and trying her best to make her feel better._

* * *

"Casi…" Leo spoke softly, "Don't cry…" He moved to try and wipe away a stray tear.

Casi jerked her head away from him again and blinked, causing more tears to make their way down to her chin and drip off. "Please Leo," she almost whimpered, "I don't want to cry in front of you again."

Leo's throat closed up, "Casi I didn't mean that kissing you was bad," he tried to explain, "I loved kissing you again…"

But the damage had already been done, and Casi shoved him away from her with her right arm and ran toward her room with her head down, shoulders shaking.

However she only got so far before Briley caught her, the brunette pulled Casi into a tight hug, and while she was shorter, she was a good substitute till the person she had called got here.

Leo ran one hand through his blonde hair, watching as once again Casi dissolved into tears and started to bawl.

The front door of the dorm opened and Hailey stepped into the room, her green eyes worried and confused. "Leo, you better tell me what happened to make Casi cry again or I will make you fail math," she said sternly as Casi ran to her and nearly knocked her over from the force of the tackle hug she did.

"I…" Leo felt terrible saying it, "I kissed her, and she asked me to kiss her again, but I hurt her feelings because I said I wasn't supposed to kiss her in the first place."

Hailey gave him a death glare and Leo hung his head as she carefully managed to get Casi over to the couch and convinced her to sit down where she then cuddled Casi like a daughter, letting her best friend cry till she couldn't cry anymore.

* * *

 _ **(I need something happy to end off the chapter, so here goes nothing! :P)**_

The video camera turned on, Forrestor, Hailey's boyfriend was secretly filming the other three. Hailey grinned, "come on Casi," she teased her friend, "you're not gonna give him what he wants?"

Casi looked almost nervously at the boy currently hanging upside down on the monkey bars in front of her. "We're on a kids playground," she reasoned rather faintly, it was clear that she wanted to, but at the same time, she was reluctant to.

"Come on Cas," Leo grinned at her, "I know you want to," he playfully wiggled his eyebrows, "I'm irresistible!" He teased with words she had indeed said before.

Casi only hesitated a moment longer before she leaned forward and lightly kissed him, her cheeks flushing a bright pink.

"I still can't believe you said that," Hailey grinned at them both, "he's never going to let you live it down."  
"Maybe not," Casi agreed and jumped, lifting her chin above the monkey bars using her right arm only, left arm dangled at her side. "But I don't really mind all that much," she smiled as Leo leaned over and gave her a sweet kiss. "Plus it's true so it's not like that's going to change any time soon."

"Personally I'm still shocked that you can do that now," Leo grinned down at Casi, "you've gotten ridiculously strong over the past seven-ish years."

"I've been here for a year now Leo," Casi rolled her eyes and let herself drop down, "get used to the fact that I practically have superhuman strength compared to you and Hailey."

"Cheeky little thing," Leo grinned even as he dropped to the ground and picked Casi up before spinning around in a few circles.

Hailey laughed, "you two are ridiculously affectionate today," she pointed out with a snort as Casi couldn't help herself and kissed Leon full on the mouth with her higher up position so that in a way she was taller than him. "Why exactly is that?"

Casi pulled back a moment later to respond, "Hmmm… I don't really remember, what about you Leo?"

Leo grinned up at her, "you've been back with me for a year now, and we've been together for what, six months now?"

Casi looked delighted that he remembers and rested her arms on his shoulders with a bright happy smile, "you're pretty good at remembering stuff like this aren't you?"

Leo grinned and pecked Casi on the lips, "always have been."

Hailey laughed again and rolled her eyes at another kiss, "okay you two, enough with the kissing," she giggled, "what exactly would you call your relationship?"

"Caeo," Casi grinned before she started laughing, "I don't really know," she giggled, Leo laughing as well, "we're not really technically the whole titled couple thing, but we're not just friends."

Leo grinned, "how about unofficial couple then?"

Hailey smiled, "I like that, you two have been an unofficial couple for six months now, right?"

"Yeah," Casi responded and giggled at Hailey's disapproving huff when she snuck a kiss simply to annoy Hailey.

"So what else are you two gonna do today besides driving us all insane and to goop from all the kissing?" Hailey snorted, and the younger teens blushed.

Leo shrugged and let Casi go, putting her down and instead just standing next to her, "no idea," When Casi gave him a disapproving look and he grinned. "Just kidding!


	7. Jayke's Little Miracle

_**~Wandering Snowleaf~**_

 _Yeah well this one is even cuter! :D This takes place a few months after but hey, it's really cute :D_

 ** _~iDragonSpyro~_**

 _I don't mean to make you cry! I just write some sad moments! XD Plus I myself am not currently enjoying my life so the sad chapters are easier to write! :P And I did give you a break, this one is adorable and the one it leads into is an emotional roller coaster with everything that happens! :P_

* * *

 _ **I'm so excited about this chapter! I love it soooo much! Even though it's Briarfeather and not Cinderblaze, and it's short! Plus technically this one is part of the next chapter, of which is going to be utter chaos in my opinion, so it's part of something larger! :D Plus I can't upload anything for the rest of the week and I wanted to let you all know with this short and sweet chapter! :D :D :D**_

* * *

 _Jayke's Little Miracle_

 _(Leads into the next chapter Dance Mayhem)_

Jayke groaned and stared unseeingly down at the piece of paper in front of him, his blind eyes focused on the literally blank piece of paper. How did he manage to do this last year again? He hated the whole guys ask girl thing for dances, he would rather just go with a group. Not that anyone would agree to go with him as a group and keep him from having to magically come up with a way to ask Havla to the dance. This time she had demanded that he asked her to the dance and he didn't blame her, while he tried to avoid dances like the plague she wasn't anti-social like he was and on top of that she enjoyed dressing up and everything for the dance. This one was a formal one, a winter dance. "I hate suits and tuxedos." Jayke grunted to himself, "and asking girls to dances."

"Jayke cut it out with the whining," Casi's voice startled him, he had forgotten that she was in the dorm too at the moment, along with Briley… His face flushed a tad, great. "You've been complaining about it all week and you've clearly not listened to anything Briley had said to you about it over the past week and a half."

Not he was curious, what had Briley said about the dance? "What do you mean?"

"She's told you about ten times that-" Casi was cut off by Briley, who made him jump by her breath being on his right ear.

"I have it handled," Briley told him simply before she moved away from him and went back to her corner of the main area.

Jayke blinked, Briley was truly the most interesting person he had ever met. "Okay, and what do I owe you, Briley?" He asked, being careful to not call her any nicknames with Casi around. If he slipped up and accidentally called Briley a nickname Casi would never let him live it down.

Briley shrugged, "I don't know yet, but it'll come to me." She seemed unfazed by the world as per usual.

Jayke sighed and ran one hand through his hair, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with her, to be honest, she was both a blessing and a curse in a way he supposed. Why? Because she had developed a crush on him and sometimes it caused him problems and other times he thought it was cute. Briley wasn't a shy person, yet sometimes he had that effect on her, and it was rather adorable in a way. Other times she was extremely helpful, like how she was building some kind of special device for him and had had him try special eye drops that admittedly, had turned his normally black world, for now, a super fuzzy one. Jayke was beginning to have his sight back after it had faded due to his vision failing with a birth defect that rendered his half-blind which had gotten worse over the years. He hadn't told anyone besides Briley just yet since he still couldn't see anything clearly, just a barrage of blurry colors and shapes. "Okay, but let me know what it'll be first okay?" While he wasn't dating Havla anymore, this was supposed to be their last dance together, he would prefer that the genius told him what she was planning before she did it.

"Mhmm," Briley responded simply and it made Jayke sigh, nobody could tell what exactly went on in that girl's head.

"Shoot!" Casi abruptly exclaimed, "I'm going to be late!"

Jayke blinked and turned his blurry gaze on Casi, "for what?" Did he even want to know at this point? She had been acting rather sneaky lately anyway, and so had his brother. So no, he didn't want to know. "You know what? Never mind," he grumbled, "probably something you're not supposed to be doing."

"You know me so well," Casi laughed before Jayke heard the front door of the dorm closing.

Jayke breathed out a sigh of relief, the dorm was finally quiet… "Ack! Briley!" He complained abruptly when hardly a few moments after Casi left he heard Briley run over and poke him in the eye with something, "what are you doing?! Trying to poke my eye out?" He snapped angrily and shut both eyes, feeling one of them throb a decent amount.

"Just wait," Briley told him, "it's for your… for your..." Jayke waited patiently for her to continue, feeling her place something above his ears and rests on his ears and nose. "It's for your vision," Briley finished, a touch of pride in her voice.

"Just remember that I have a lot to do before the dance today okay?" Jayke sighed patiently, "I'm being forced to go to the dance."

"I'm going too," Briley told him simply, and her response shocked him, "I've never… never been to one before."

Jayke didn't know what to say, he hadn't expected Briley to be going at all. He heard Briley move to be sitting on the table in front of him, and she fiddled with whatever she had just put on his face. "They aren't that interesting," he eventually snorted, "it's boring and pretty stupid in my opinion."

"Maybe this will help?" Briley suggested before he felt her remove her hands from the device on his face. "Try opening your eyes! But be…"

"I'll be careful," Jayke rolled his eyes while they were closed and he blinked and then reeled, closing them again. He could've sworn his vision wasn't blurry… He opened his eyes again and squinted this time against all of the light, waiting for his vision to adjust. Then he realized with a start who he was looking at and what she had put on his face. "You… Briley, you made me glasses?"

Briley, the girl sitting in front of him with a freckled face and currently a bright smile, nodded. "Yeah, they're special, they work differently…"

Jayke let her ramble, watching with something close to fascination at her hands and how she gestured excitedly with her rambling words. He almost had a hard time seeing Briley as the girl he had gotten to know. He had been told she looked to be rather crazy and to him she looked driven, not crazy. Sure she had a small amount of circuitry oil and white ink on her face and hands, but it made her seem more involved in her work above everything. Her eyes were fascinating, she did seem to have a spaced out look in her eyes, but the colors, icy blue to orange, were fascinating. She was about his height, he had been right about that, with tanned skin, lots of freckles that gave her a rather cute hint, and a thin runner's build. He could see how she was a runner by her build and the muscle he could see along her arms and shoulders, she was pretty fit, and yet at the same time she didn't really seem like an athlete, she seemed more of a loss in her own mind kind of person. She was wearing an orange tank-top with a white zip down hoodie around her waist, darker blue skinny jeans, white and grey running shoes, and had her phone strapped in a case to her left upper arm with the earbuds pushed haphazardly into the case pocket. She looked so different than what he had pictured her as, and oddly enough the girl sitting in front of him fit her personality perfectly.

"You're staring," Briley said quietly, and Jayke blinked, having not noticed that she had stopped speaking and had grasped her right arm with her left hand in a rather shy and nervous manner. Her orange amber eyes were nervous too, and she looked rather uncomfortable.

"Sorry," Jayke apologized quickly, "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he cracked a genuine smile, "I'm just getting used to being able to see my friend."

Briley's amber eyes lit up and she beamed at him at the words, letting her arm drop to her side in the process. "I bet it's weird," she said to him, no traces of her language inability as she spoke to him, "seeing someone you've become friends with for the first time after months."

Jayke smiled back, feeling rather giddy at the moment, he could see! And while it was temporary to when he wore the glasses, he could see everyone. "It is, but your appearance fits you perfectly."

Briley's smile widened and she laughed, "well yours does too," she told him with faint laughter, one of the first times Jayke had actually heard her laugh, and continued in her typical blunt nature, "I think you're handsome, and your personality fits it too."

Jayke's lips twitched into a wider smile, "thanks Bri," he said and his smile widened at the delight on her face at the nickname. "Both for the compliment and for you know."

Briley flashed a white-toothed smile at him, amber eyes twinkling, "yeah, I know." She turned a little more serious, "I would only wear the glasses for four to six hours at a time though, the strain on your eyes could give you a migraine till they've healed properly."

Jayke nodded, "I assumed something along those lines," he admitted then grinned a rather mischievous grin. "Let's keep this a secret till the dance tonight, what do you think?"

Briley adopted a Cheshire cat style grin, "definitely!" Then her amber eyes softened and she simply smiled, "I'm glad you can see me," she admitted rather shyly, "I wanted you to be able to since I met you."

Jayke smiled softly back at her, "well I can see you now, and…" he hesitated for half a second purely out of awkwardness, "and you're beautiful Briley."

Briley's truly happy smile was worth every second of the five months of time he had known her and been unable to see her.

* * *

 _ **I love these two way too much! I love them both to death! :D :D :D I may love Casi and Leo more, but I still love these two so much! :D Briley's fixed Jayke's vision! Temporarily for now, and later she has to do some other stuff, but she fixed it and he can see her now! Also, I will release some chapters of them actually becoming friends and all that jazz, I just wanted a happy chapter (and so did a few reviewers :P) So I wrote this one which is in December while the previous two chapters take place in September I think :P I'll make a timeline eventually XD**_

* * *

 _ **Sneak Peek "Sketch" for two scenes in the upcoming chapter "Dance Mayhem"**_

Casi clenched her right hand in frustration, "Great StarClan Leo!" She snapped at the blonde, unable to hide her emotions all that well with the reaction to the spiked drink she had earlier. Jayke had prevented her from going too far but at the moment she kind of wished he hadn't mainly so that she wouldn't have to deal with Leo. "I don't have to explain every one of my actions to you! Not when you're with Iria!" She breathed a semi shuddery breath, "until you aren't in a relationship with the worst girl on the planet what goes on my head is my business not yours!"

Leo narrowed his eyes at her, "Well I'm sorry about asking why my friend who hates dressing up is at a _formal_ dance!"

Casi felt a lump in her throat emerge at the word 'friend.' "Your _friend_ decided to go with Briley and Frank as a group of friends! Because unlike what you've decided I like or don't like, I do sometimes enjoy being around my friends!"

Leo looked doubtful, "you hate dances, you've almost never gone to a dance before now in your life Cas! I'm asking because I want to know what hidden agenda you have going! For all I know you and Frank could be planning a massive prank and ruin the dance!"

Casi looked like he had slapped her and looked at him, speechless and both hurt and indignant.

Leo realized what he had said and how it made her sound and adopted an apologetic expression, "I didn't mean that."

"You say a lot of things you don't mean Leo," Casi pointed out with a small sigh, "like how you said you wanted to take _me_ to this dance, how you said you would be free from Iria by now, or how you're not supposed to kiss me at all and yet you do it anyway."

Leo didn't know what to say, he was terrible at girls, and with Casi and their relationship he seemed to always put his foot in his mouth.

"But I let you, I bend my morals and pretend that I couldn't care less that we're not supposed to do what we do anyway," Casi revealed, temporarily not hiding what she was thinking or feeling. "I'm supposed to say no, no to you proposing the idea of sneaking around, no to you asking me for advice, and no from the very beginning and giving you those tickets that I should've given to someone else and never told you what it was for." She pulled the hair band free for the bun piece of her half up half down hair style and ran one hand through her dark colored hair. She sat down at one of the desks in the classroom, leaning back against the back of the chair, tilting her head back slightly, and shutting her eyes. "Just go back to the dance Leo," She sighed, "I'm sure Iria starting to assume the worst of you."

Leo did as she asked, but looked back at her once he reached the door, "I'll find Hailey or Briley. And Cas"

Casi gave a uninterested hum, "hmm?"

"I'm sorry for putting you in this situation."

:(

Briley's gentle smile widened and the genius playfully spun around in her dress, smiling at Jayke's rather stunned expression, "it's oddly comfortable" she smiled at him and the genius reached over and straightened his tie with a smile, "although you should really be wearing an orange one right?"

Jayke's lips quirked into a smile for the first time that night, there was a special spot for the miracle worker in his iced over heart. "Well I don't know about you but I was originally going with Havla, and her dress isn't copper colored now is it?" He was enjoying his vision way too much, it was even affecting the grumpy part of his loner personality.

"Nope, so maybe lose the tie instead?" Briley suggested, and Jayke watched, feeling her normally shaky hands smoothly undo the tie and unbutton the top button of his collar. "Come on, Frank and Casi are..." She blinked and paused, looking blankly ahead of her and furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

Jayke couldn't help but smile, he may have only been able to see for less than twenty-four hours, but Briley was definitely his favorite person to watch. "Are waiting somewhere?"

Briley's amber eyes lit up and she smiled at him, "yeah! Although..." She looked a little less happy, "Leo and Casi were..."

"Arguing?" Jayke supplied, knowing full well that they argued in front of Briley more than anyone else because Briley blended into the background in the dorm.

Briley nodded, "yeah, Leo pulled her into a..." She blanked again and drummed her fingers along her left arm as she tried to remember the word.

"Leo pulled her into a classroom?" Jayke groaned, "yeah, we should probably find them before Leo makes Casi cry again."

Briley nodded again, her mood a little dimmed due to the situation they would have to take care of.

Jayke shook off his dreariness and playfully offered Briley his arm, "shall we go then?"

Briley lightly shook her head, "no, not yet." She stood close to him, amber eyes twinkling with mischeif, "I wanna do something first."

Jayke raised his eyebrows, "and that is?..." He noticed in the back of his mind that Briley never forgot a word when she was talking about anything relating to him.

Briley's lips quirked into a smile and she didn't bother to respond verbally, instead the genius rested her hands on his shoulders and leaned forward, lightly kissing the grumpy loner.


	8. Love Is A Fragile Thing

**_~Snowcrystal of Thunderclan~_**

 _Briley's super anti people when it comes to her space :P_

 _Leo does have a whole army of problems doesn't he? :P_

 _Ah, I probably should have made them more different but I felt like these names fit them all pretty darn well :D_

* * *

 ** _Kinda hit a lull in my writing :P Sorry about the late update guys! :D_**

* * *

 _Love Is A Fragile Thing_

Casi just stood there, wide-eyed as she gazed at the two. It was almost like she was frozen to the ground, unable to escape or flee. _No…_ Leo had promised, he wouldn't break it… right?

"Casi?" Briley spoke rather softly from where she had stopped walking and was now standing a few feet in front of her with one arm extended from Jayke having stopped walking later than her and him holding her wrist. "Hey, just ignore him," she encouraged and grasped Casi's right wrist and gently tugged, "he'll join us if he wants to Casi."

Casi's blue eyes threatened to water before she sucked it up and moved, masking her expression with practiced ease and pulling her gaze away from Leon. "I know," she said with a faint stumbling over the words, "I just wasn't expecting it."

Jayke turned to see what Casi had seen, looking through his new glasses and frowned hard. What was his brother doing with Iria after they had broken up? Leo was supposed to be with Casi, so what was he doing? "No, he's going to join us," Jayke said stiffly before releasing Briley's wrist and going toward his brother. "Briley go sit down and take Casi with you," he directed the girl he was dating, "I've got Leo."

Briley looked a little nervous but nodded and tugged on Casi's wrist again before leading her to an empty table in the restaurant and watched Jayke with an intent gaze.

Casi, who really wasn't in the mood to be paying attention anymore, slumped against the back of the padded bench, sliding down to be slouching and hardly visible. "This isn't going to end well," she groaned before reluctantly picking up her menu.

Briley said nothing as she watched intently, immediately noticing the pair of guys moving to stand up as Jayke lightly pushed his brother. She watched for a few more seconds before getting to her feet and jogging toward the table, "hey!" She announced her presence to Iria's bodyguards, "what're you doing?"

"Stay out of it freak," the larger jock growled at her, brown eyes glinting darkly.

"Hey! Ooph!"

Casi jumped a mile as there was a crash from Jayke being slammed into the table, his arm twisted behind his back. She slouched lower, not wanting to fight today of all days and now of all of today.

Briley narrowed her eyes at the jock, "leave Jayke alone your animal," she snapped back with miraculously perfect English, "or are you too stupid to understand basic English?"

The jock's face reddened and he growled an animal like growl, only proving Briley's point further. "Look who's talking."

Briley didn't seem nervous or scared by having a much taller jock standing in front of her, instead, she seemed as unfazed as usual. "Me? I know five languages and have a degree in physics, I ain't stupid." She said with confidence, her language disability miraculously not getting in the way. "You growling, on the other hand, proves you're very stupid. Worse than a dumb frog."

The jock angrily swung at Briley, who neatly sidestepped, moving much faster than him.

"Come on," Briley taunted as she moved a step back, bouncing on her toes, "you hit like a girl."

The jock snarled and swung again, and again, moving forward as Briley judged and moved backward.

Briley's eyes were darting everywhere, looking for something she could use to defend herself without really harming him. She spotted a few of the trays food was delivered on and quickly snatched them and blocked a punch, one of the trays snapping under the punch's strength. "Put your head down Leo!" She warned before throwing the second tray like a frisbee, calculating for air current and aerodynamics in the process.

The frisbee promptly nailed the guy pinning Jayke in the back of the head with a decent amount of force, stunning him and causing him to release Jayke.

Briley dodged another punch with a neat sidestepped and poked her tongue out and mocked him before her foot slipped and she fell back hard onto the ground with an ooph.

The jock grinned and knelt down before he punched Briley hard in the mouth, causing her lip to split in the center and corner. "Now look who's in charge, freak," he spat and punched her again.

Briley narrowed her eyes, shook off the dizziness muddling her brain and managed to catch his next punch. She then clenched the muscles in her hand and arm, preventing him from actually punching her again, and spit at him making him reel back at the genius spitting blood at him. Briley gave a rather bloody smile before she stood up, getting up in one fluid motion from her running, and nailing him in the face with a punch of her own. "I am," she spat at him as the jock stumbled back and reeled, stunned. "And I'm not a freak, I'm a genius!" She caught his jaw in an uppercut with as much strength as her small body could muster, managing to hit with enough force to knock him out. She brushed the back of her left hand over her mouth, wiping the blood from her lower lip with a rather large scowl on her usually distant expression face. She then looked at the other jock and pointed to the table he had been sitting at, "sit. down."

The other jock hesitated and Briley narrowed her eyes, her eyes flashing angrily, "now."

The jock did as she asked and plopped down in his earlier seat, sitting there and staring at her with a surprised and rather fearful expression.

Briley then looked down at the other jock and knelt down on one knee before she lightly slapped one cheek, testing his awareness. He didn't even stir.

"Dang, you hit hard," Jayke said from where he was wiping the blood from his own split lower lip and sitting on the restaurant's floor, "harder than me for sure."

Briley grinned, her teeth still stained by her bleeding mouth, "I'm a runner, muscle from head to toe," as she said that she gestured at her head and then her feet.

"Wait, hold on a sec," Leo stood up and looked at the pair, "what exactly caused this?"

Casi, tired of being a coward for once, got up and walked over, walking around the out cold jock. "Jayke went to take you over to where we all were _supposed_ to be meeting, but you're getting back together with Iria. That's what happened."

Leo looked guiltily at Casi, "that's not what this is about."

Casi narrowed her eyes, "really? Then explain why you've canceled every date we had this week so far, you arrived here an hour early," she slammed her hands down onto the table, blue eyes flashing. "You always reject any kind of physical contact from me, and why you've been sneaking around behind my back."

"Oh, will you stop overreacting?" Iria snapped at the athlete with narrowed eyes, "you really are soft and weak behind that face of yours."

Casi's head snapped toward her, "who told you about-"

"Your facade?" Iria asked with a snort before she gestured to Leo, "he did, and now I really do see it all the time."

Casi clenched her jaw before she looked back over at Leo glaring at him, "oh I am never trusting you with stuff like that again Leo."

Leo tried to explain, "Casi just let me explain!"

"Why should I?" Casi snapped furiously, "two of my best friends just got beat up by Iria's 'bodyguards' and you're acting like Iria's your girlfriends instead of _me_!" She gestured to herself, " _I'm_ your girlfriend, the girl who's had to wait for your sorry butt for a year and a half to be done going out with a girl that wasn't me!"

"Casi!" Leo glanced at the other teens in the restaurant who were all looking over at them all, "keep it down!"

Casi looked stung before she quickly masked it, swiped Leo's water glass and promptly splashed it over Iria, her expression remaining impassive even as Iria shrieked and flung her arms up to her wet shirt. "Good luck with Iria again Leo," she told the blonde as she put the glass down on the table, slid it toward him and looked at him rather numbly, "we're done. Again." With that she turned away from him and started toward the exit, Jayke and Briley on her heels, the pair of them had been smiling at each other before Casi and Leo's argument were now scowling identical scowls.

"Casi wait up!" Leo exclaimed and slipped out of the booth to chase after them. Briley stopped him, the smaller athlete glaring daggers at the blonde as she spun around.

"You, stay away from Casi till you figure out what's wrong with you." She growled and shoved him, making him stumble at least a few steps.

"Briley please," Leo pleaded with her, "I need to explain to Casi."

Briley shook her head, her eyes softening a small amount for her friend, "Casi needs space, away from you Leo, you hurt her again."

* * *

Leo really wanted to cry as he punched the gym wall, staring hopelessly at the hole he had made in the gym wall while the rest of the basketball team practiced. Except for Casi. Ashton had pulled her out and made her sit on the bleachers after she missed shot, after shot, after shot. Now she was sitting on the bleachers staring blankly out at nothing, her blue eyes unfocused and distant. He could tell she was upset, heartbroken even. He hated his situation and hated it even more now that Casi had ended their relationship and was at the moment practically a zombie, he missed his best friend and the girl he loved. She wouldn't talk to anyone about it, not even Hailey, she was at their dorm whenever she wasn't asked to do something and just sat there on the couch staring ahead at nothing. Like she was doing right now on the bleachers. He loathed Iria and Iria's screwed up father who was in charge of sports scholarships. Someone clearing their throat startled the living daylights out of Leo, making him jump and instinctively punch at them.

His punch was caught with unflinching ease and calm grass green eyes stared back at him. Grass green eyes and blonde hair with red ends only meant one person. Ivalyn, the school's resident popular girl, and the most mysterious one. He knew she was also in charge of a special group that worked off the books for the school, what it did he didn't know, but he did know it was called "The Dark Ring."

"Leo Bramble," the blonde spoke in a particularly cool tone, unfazed by his punch, and released his fist. "I heard you're in some kind of trouble." She was about Casi's height with semi-pale skin, no freckles, rather cunning grass green eyes, and blonde hair with dyed red ends. She was wearing a black leather jacket unzipped with her hands currently in the pockets; gray half sleeve shirt with the words "If you want a stepping mat, then be ready for payback" in fancier white and black lettering; dark blue skinny jeans with a thin black belt and silver belt buckle; and knee-high black leather boots that her jeans were tucked into. Her hair was held up in a messy bun by two thin silver rods, that were able to widen and elongate into suitable tasers to defend herself.

Leo swallowed hard and nodded, knowing that hopefully she could and would help him. "Yeah, how do you know?"

Ivalyn gave him a rather flat look, "Leo, I belong to a hidden group that helps students against blackmail and bullying. Why wouldn't I know?"

Leon had to admit that it was a fair point, she did dig around as her side job. "Then I don't have to explain it to you?"

Ivalyn smiled faintly and nodded, "no, you don't. And I can help you."


	9. Last Chapter (Story's Dropped)

_**So as it says on my profile, I'm dropping this story. Unfortunately, my spark's vanished. To keep this short, I'm not a fan of people calling Briley a "perfect character" in lack of better words, and that it's all focused on her. Hence why I'm dropping the story. I haven't updated for months, and that's why. Sorry guys, but the Runner and the Loner, the Athlete and the Jock is done, even without an ending. This little thing I wrote a while ago, and it's mildly amusing so I'm uploading it along with this announcement.**_

 _ **I hope you all have a good week, and I'm sorry for not continuing this.**_

* * *

 _Casi's Crush, The Hidden Moments_

"Leo!" Casi hissed as her back hit the locker room lockers, her blue eyes widening to the size of dinner plates, "what are you doing in here?!"

Leo tilted his head and gave a completely arrogant smirk at his fellow athlete. "I'm the team captain, I'm free to go where I please regarding the gym remember?"

"I'm pretty sure Asher didn't mean the girls' locker room you insane lunatic!" Casi snapped at him, her face could not get any redder at this point. The practice had started and ended perfectly normal, just like every other day practice, except this time Leo had ventured into the girls' locker room for a reason Casi didn't know and didn't want to think about. "StarClan above if Isa sees you in here she will kill you and gut me like a fish Leo!" _Do not think about his hands on my waist, don't do it Casi!_ Casi sternly told herself as Leo rested his hands on both sides of her waist, his ring and pinky fingers were brushing against her skin from the ruffled hem of her tank-top, something she blamed on him startling her like this.

Leo laughed but kept smirking, "hey, you're the one who kissed me after that game, I had nothing to do with it."

Casi's face flushed some more, "I did not mean to kiss you and you know that you arse," she growled at him, blue eyes lighting with a fierce and stubborn fire. "I was too invigorated by the thrill of the win and ended up kissing you." She poked him in the chest with her right hand or at least tried to but he stopped her, "you were practically egging me on too."

Leo grinned at the competitive and stubborn fire in his friend's eyes and caught her hand before she could poke him by removing his hands from her waist and clasping her hand between both of his and resting his chin on them, amber eyes focused on her own blue ones. "Hey, don't get all angry, I came to see you." His words had the desired effect, Cynthia's expression melted and she smiled softly at him and hesitantly leaned forward to touch her forehead to his own. "Wanted to talk to my friend without having a certain nosy blonde around."

"Yeah right," Casi rolled her eyes, "I caught you Leo, don't you dare lie to me."

"Seriously I did," Leo told her with a slight smile, "I wanted to see you and wish you good luck with that strength test and the appointment involving your left arm." He paused for a few moments before he gave a rather goofy smirk, "and I may have checked you out for a few seconds, but that's all I swear."

Casi rolled her eyes, "pervert," she said half-heartedly, her blue eyes were half closed now. "I totally forgot about the appointment," she admitted quietly, "completely slipped my mind about the strength and nerve testing."

Leo let go of her right hand with one hand and slid his fingers through the fingers of her left hand, the more calloused and scarred skin...


	10. Casi's Tears REWRITE

_**I won't upload any new idea chapters, especially any of them involving Briley because I'd rather not have backlash about her character, but I wanted to rewrite chapter 6 "Casi's Tears" since my writing has gotten a hundred times better and I was reading through the story and felt the urge to redo it.**_

 _ **So without further ado, Casi's Tears v.2**_

* * *

 _Casi's Tears v.2_

With tears sparkling in Casi's blue eyes, betraying her strong emotions that for once she couldn't control and hide, she blurted out the reason she didn't want him telling her he loved her. "Because _I_ love you, Leo!" She blurted out, some of her black hair escaping her messy ponytail, "and I can't be with you! So when you say things like 'I love you, you're amazing,' it feels like your stabbing my heart with a knife and watching me suffer! It hurts hearing the one you love," her voice cracked, "say words you want to hear but they don't truly mean. I know I act like I don't have a single care in the world but it's not true you know it!" Her eyes were glassy and partially unfocused now as she struggled to keep from crying. "I've worked so hard to pretend none of this bothers me, that I don't wish it would go back to how it was last year when _I_ was the one you were kissing, holding hands with and being with you!"

Leo looked at her, his amber eyes sad as he approached her slightly, wanting to comfort her somehow. "Cas, you know I don't have feelings for Iria, I'm just stuck with her-"

"Does it really matter?" Casi snapped through the tears swimming in her eyes, "just because you don't have any romantic feelings for her doesn't mean I can be with you!" Her voice rose into a sharp yell at the end before she deflated and looked at him, the heartbreak she had been harboring for close to a year finally coming to the surface around him. "Do you know how much it hurts watching you be with a girl who flaunts you like a trophy? Watching as she takes your money and thrives off your popularity and doesn't really seem to care about you? Iria only likes you for your popularity Leo. She used to like you, really like you, but now she's just in it for the popularity. While I," her voice cracked, "while I sit here knowing I could do better than her, and yet wishing that I could do something about all of this." Her blue eyes shut for a few seconds as she continued speaking, Leo keeping silent and just listening.

"I'm used to us just being friends, and I can live with it. I like the nicknames you like to give me off the top of your head even though I'm just your best friend now. I play on the basketball team under you in a hard earned spot with my left arm's disability and I'm happy. I don't mind giving you money because it makes Iria easier to deal with, and I can handle you not going anywhere with our friends anymore." Her voice shook as she opened her eyes, "I can even handle waking up and finding you in my room because you had a nightmare of the car crash that put me into a coma. At least there in those moments I can pretend nothing's wrong and selfishly want to keep you there with me for a few moments while my heart's breaking all over again."

Leo's breath hitched and he opened his mouth to speak, to tell her she didn't have to tell him this, that he'd stay away from her and try to make it easier, but Casi cut him off, the tears in her eyes threatening to escape as her voice grew more emotional.

"You have no idea what kind of effect you have on me Leo, where I want to kiss you whenever you make that utterly confused expression where your eyebrows wrinkle together and I think it's adorable. But I don't, I don't ever actually kiss you properly, not since last year where you were _mine,_ not Iria's. Where I could kiss you for every hilarious and adorable expression you make or really whenever I wanted to." Casi breathed a shuddery breath, her lower lip trembling slightly, "I can handle a lot of things, I can take nearly everything thrown at me, but…" she lost her cool, pulling a miserable expression and giving a few struggling breaths as she stifled a sob and refused to let it all overwhelm her. "But I can't…" her voice trembled, threatening to break down sobbing, "I can't handle you telling me you love me. When I can't be with you and when I'm forced to watch you be with Iria every day." She remained standing though and in somewhat control, standing across from him next to the the small kitchenette counter.

"Cas…" Leo spoke her name in a sad tone, looking at her in a miserable fashion. Casi rarely showed anyone the emotional stress she was under, hiding it behind her immature and goofy personality that made her seem younger and sometimes more childish.

Casi sniffled hard while she tried to keep herself together, "I had my chance to officially ask you out and I blew it," she stated bitterly, "I know. However for some stupid reason the whole damn school wants Iria with you and you and I apart." She roughly brushed the escaped tears from her face and sniffled again.

A lump grew in Leo's throat, "that wasn't your fault, Iria-"

"Iria got to you first," Casi retorted with a bitter laugh, "and I've tried competing with her before but I can't. She may be the most annoying and conceited person on the planet but she's… she's perfect." She looked away from him, speaking bitterly, "I'm just the disabled athlete of your best friend. I've worked my butt off for everything and I still can't reach her level. She's the Queen Bee of the school, unbeatable."

Leo didn't verbally respond, hearing her speak that way about herself stabbed at his heart, when he always saw Casi more beautiful in and out than Iria. Casi was beautiful, and she was perfect too, more so than Iria but she never saw that in herself. Without thinking he moved forward, wanting to feel something besides the crippling misery they both dealt with every day. He wanted her to feel better, to tell her the whole situation, and be her with again, not with the blonde he was stuck with.

He placed his hands on both sides of her face and firmly kissed her full on the mouth, cradling her face in his hands like she was a delicate treasure he never wanted to lose.

Casi leaned back against the counter behind her at the force of Leo moving forward. Stabilizing herself as she gasped against his mouth and melted into the kiss. Bringing her right hand up and threading it through his messy blond hair. Keeping him close while her other arm remained virtually useless and stayed at her side. She felt like they had gone back in time to last year, where they kissed, went on fun dates together all the time and had been essentially dating.

Casi's fingers tangled slightly in Leo's messy hair, refusing to let him go as she kissed him back. She wanted this and selfishly she wasn't letting go. She had missed this feeling, where he loved her and were Iria wasn't standing between them like a massive wedge. Where for just a few moments she felt invincible and her heart wasn't aching all the time.

The kiss was firm, rough, passionate, and filled with scattered emotions. For Leo it was nothing like kissing Iria. He didn't like kissing Iria but would put up with it to make the blonde happy, while he had forgotten what it was like to kiss the girl in front of him.

Casi had always laid out her emotions when they kissed in the past, like a finished hand of cards. Letting him see everything what bothered her, what built her up, and what gave the confidence she exuded. Her lips were soft and warm against his, gentle but in control, her movements were frantic and a little scared, like she knew this moment would end any second and she didn't want it to.

Leo pulled back first a few seconds later, pulling away just enough to break the kiss, but close enough for his breath to wash over her face, tickling her skin with the warm air. He let go of her face and rested his hands on her waist. "You can do everything you want to," he said in a quiet voice. Resting his forehead against hers, "everything and more. I've seen you do it before."

Casi nodded but kept her eyes closed and didn't verbally respond. Instead, she tugged him into another kiss. A softer, less frantic and more sweet and passionate kiss.

Leo broke it again about fifteen seconds later, as the realization and the guilt settled in. Iria. This wasn't fair to her, he was still in a relationship with her. But he didn't want to pull away from Casi, he looked at her, amber eyes a little giddy and yet at the same miserable. "Cas…" he murmured as the girl leaned forward and brushed her lips over his, "stop…"

"I don't want to," Casi breathed against his lips in a breathless tone, keeping her blue eyes firmly closed and her fingers softly tangled in his thick blonde hair.

"I know," Leo responded, his own breathing a little rough, "but I'm not supposed… to be doing this-"

Casi stole the last few words with a kiss before she reluctantly breathed out a miserable sigh and quietly leaned her forehead against his. "I know," she murmured in a breathless whisper, "I know it's wrong." Her voice wobbled as her eyes half opened. "I know you're going to go back to Iria, and I won't be this close to you again for months…" she took a shaky breath and Leo saw tears well in her blue eyes before she continued. "It's not fair" she whispered moving her head from side to side barely half an inch. an inch in both directions. "I want to be with you so bad, to be your girlfriend instead of Iria, but I can't."

Leo opened his mouth for a few seconds before he paused, feeling something wet land on his shirt, and looked startled at Casi. Who had tears beginning to roll down her cheeks and her eyes were beginning to go red rimmed.

"I know it's wrong for you to kiss me again, but…" Her blue eyes were broken and pleading, tired of fighting every day. "Please? Just this once?"

Leo wanted to give it to her, he wanted to brush the tears from her eyes and kiss her till her head was spinning and she was happy, but… "I'm sorry Casi…"

Casi gave a tremble from head to toe at the rejection, she then dropped her head down and hunched her shoulders. Before she pushed her head into the crook of Leo's neck with her eyes squeezed shut and she hugged him tightly with one arm.

"I'm sorry…" Casi apologized in a broken tone, "I know I shouldn't be doing this, I shouldn't be touching you at all."

Leo's heart twisted at his best friend's voice and he leaned further down to take in account their height differences, before pulling her into a close embrace. He gently held the back of Casi's head, keeping her where she was as she moved to let him go, and wound his other arm protectively around her slim waist. "Don't cry…"

Casi breathed a sniffling breath and shook harder, her hand clenching a handful of shirt shirt, clearly struggling to hold herself together.

"Cas… please don't cry… I'm sorry," Leo pleaded with her, able to hear the suppressed sobs she was making, "I didn't mean to make you cry. I never want to make you cry…"

Casi buried her head deeper into his neck and gave a strangled sob, trying her hardest to keep it together. "I'm sorry, I'm trying… I'm trying to stop crying…"

It reminded Leo of the last time he had seen her really cry. He rarely saw her really cry, at most she'd tear up and shamelessly shoulder her burden without fear of showing her tears. However, there was one moment last year where she had really broken down into tears comforted by her best friend and his sister. The last time he had seen her really cry was after Iria had kissed him after a basketball game and asked him out. He never should've said yes, he should've returned to his dorm and found everything Casi had planned and put together to ask him out in her own roundabout way instead, yet he couldn't change it now.

* * *

 _The first thing that hit Leo's ears as he entered the dorm was the sound of running water, the clinking of dishes, and the sound of someone sniffling like they were holding back tears. He had been planning on finding Casi and getting her opinion on what he should where and where he should take Iria for their first date, but that quickly dissolved. It dissolved at the sight of his best friend standing in the little kitchenette, her shoulders hunched with her head held low. She had changed from her basketball gear to a simple t-shirt and denim shorts with frayed ends and no socks. How she had beat him up here after the game he had no idea. Yet she was there, and oddly enough she was doing dishes, dishes he hadn't been aware had even been used._

" _Hey Casi, you feeling okay?" He quietly asked his best friend as he walked closer to her and leaned to one side, trying to catch a glimpse of her expression._

 _Casi jumped a mile into the air before she responded, her voice thick with emotion and a little nasally. "Yeah, I'm fine. Go celebrate with Iria Leo, I'll be here when you get back."_

" _First off where would we go? And second of all, what do you mean you're fine? You've been crying, your eyes are all red rimmed and everything."_

 _Casi gave a heavy sigh and reluctantly grabbed a towel to dry her hands before she turned to face him. Sure enough tears glimmered on her cheeks, leaving thin trails that reflected light in a different way than her skin did. "You finally got yourself an official girlfriend Leo, go on and celebrate with her, take her somewhere fancy shmancy."_

 _Leo gave her a weird look, "Casi are you sure you're okay? You're acting way too calm about this."_

 _Casi stuffed her hands into her pockets, the metal on her left arm allowing her to properly move the limb. She smiled sadly, "what do you expect Leo? I lost my chance, had it swipe out from under my very nose. Honestly I'm trying just to keep it together till I can crawl into bed and cry. Now go on, make her happy."_

 _Leo ran a hand through his blonde hair, "let's just say I believe you about your mental state. Where should I take her? This is Iria we're talking about."_

" _I know, Casi murmured quietly before she dug into a pocket of her shorts and offered them to him, her hand shaking slightly. "How about here? It's a reservation for two that I can't get rid of."_

 _Leo's jaw dropped as he took the tickets and studied them. The tickets were to a particularly fancy restaurant funplex, where he had only gone twice. "Where… how… where did you get these?"_

" _I bought them," Casi responded simply, her voice breaking halfway through the sentence. Her eyes, directed at him with tear glistening pools of beautiful blue, were red-rimmed and held a look of broken longing behind her lowering emotional barriers. All in all she looked like she wanted to cut the conversation short and flee to her dorm room before diving under the covers and hiding from the world till it stopped cracking beneath her feet._

 _If possible Leo's jaw dropped further and he stared at her, wide-eyed. "You… you bought these? What in the world urged her into buying a reservation here? I know you Casi, fancy dinners and dressing up is a once in a bluemoon kind of thing."_

 _A few of Casi's tears escaped and made a trail down her cheeks as she spoke through the lump in her throat and the agony in her heart. She shoved her hands into her pockets before briefly gesturing at him, "you." She said before pausing, swallowing hard, and shoved her hand back into her pocket, "I bought them for you. For an official date just the two of us." She took a shuddering breath, "you know, after I asked you out first. We've already kissed and we're practically dating but… I never asked you out properly." Her voice turned bitter and a little self-loathing, "but I guess there's no point in it now. You're a free agent, and… and I missed my chance." She forced a weak smile and gestured to the tickets, "but I'm sure you and Iria will have a blast, so they won't go to waste."_

 _Leo's eyes glinted with pain in amber depths, "Cas… Why didn't you tell me? StarClan above, the thought of answering Iria asking me out with a yes never would've even crossed my mind!"_

 _Casi grasped her left arm in a shy manner and looked down at her shoes, more tears dripping down her cheeks and chin. "I've never asked someone out before and I was a coward. I don't know what to do regarding romance and our messy relationship, but I was trying."_

" _What do you want us to be?" Leo asked quietly, a lump growing in his throat as well, feeling like an absolute jerk._

 _Casi lifted her gaze to his and brushed tears from one of her eyes, looking sadly at him, "I want what I now can't have. You have a girlfriend now," her voice choked, "who isn't me. So I have to settle for being your best friend again, just your friend. When I want to cuddle with you and watch a movie and when I want you to kiss me and tell me it's going to be okay, that I'm not losing my chance to be with you all because I'm a coward toward romance."_

" _What else did you plan?" Leo asked hoarsely, knowing full well that when his best friend planned something she went full out. "I know that can't be all."_

 _Casi's blue eyes watered more, "I set up decorations in the dorm, and got all the stuff to make the treat we used to make as kids together. I picked out an action movie for you that we could watch while we goofed off or played around till the reservations at six." Her shoulders were shaking now, causing her entire body to be softly trembling from her emotions. She breifly shut her eyes to pull herself a little together before speaking the next sentence. "I even bought a dress to make sure I can get into the reservation place."_

 _Leo felt his stomach twist and drop with guilt, "what color?" He asked hoarsely despite already being able to guess what color the dress was._

" _Silver," Casi murmured in a broken tone of voice, "with blue accents. Cause you told me when we went out for dinner last month-"_

" _-it accents your eyes…" Leo finished the sentence, his voice breaking, "I remember telling you it accented the hints of silver in your eyes." He felt even more horrible, Casi rarely ever dressed up for any reason, despising formal wear and turning up her nose at almost anything relating to a dress or skirt. Yet she had gone out of her way to buy a dress that he in particular would like. "Can I see it?" He asked a moment later, unsure where the thought came from, "please?"_

 _Casi hesitantly nodded before she spun on her heel and led the way to her dorm room, Leo on her heels. She pushed open the door to the rather messy room littered with art supplies, athletic equipment, and schoolwork and headed toward the closet. Where she silently pushed open the door of her closet, took out a gently shimmering silver dress and laid it out on her messy made bed. Where she stuffed her hands back into the pockets of her shorts and looked at him through tear glassy eyes. "I liked it, figured you would too."_

 _Leo wanted to cry. The dress was beautiful, and he knew it would look jaw dropping on Casi, while he also knew that he would likely never see it on her her. "It's beautiful, you'd look gorgeous in it."_

 _The dress was a shimmering silver, softly reflecting light. With a dark blue velvet ribbon at the waist, intricate dark blue vine like designs on the skirt, and elegant dark blue hemming. It was thin strapped with a knee high slit along one side, and would compliment Casi's blue eyes while contrasting her dark colored wavy hair._

 _Tears misted Leo's eyes and he blinked them away before he walked over to Casi and pulled her into a tight embrace, apologizing softly in her ear, his voice cracking. "I'm so sorry, StarClan forgive me I'm so sorry Cas." He tightened his arms around her, feeling her shake harder in his arms, "I ruined everything, especially for you."_

 _For a moment Casi clung to him, her arms slipped around his back and pushing her body as close to his as possible while she gave a muffled sob into his shoulder. "I'm a coward, I should've acted before Iria got to you first. This is my fault, all of it."_

 _Leo's heart squeezed and he gently pulled Casi back before looking at her, looking at her blue eyes glazed with falling tears. He rested a hand on her cheek, brushing his thumb softly over her skin, "I'm sorry," he murmured again, feeling his own eyes grow wet, "I'm so sorry."_

 _Casi sniffled and said nothing, trembling in his arms and leaning into his touch, lifting a hand to cover the one on her face._

 _Without thinking both of them leaned forward till they were an inch from each others faces, and that's where Leo paused, looking at her._

 _Casi had closed her eyes and was breathing shuddery breaths, her breath hitching as she desperately tried to pull herself together. "You're not mine anymore," Casi murmured in a heartbroken tone and shut her eyes tighter, "so can you at least kiss me goodbye before I lose you?"_

 _Leo nodded and gently pressed his lips to hers in a bittersweet last kiss before pulling back and looking at her._

 _Casi opened her eyes as well, and Leo could tell she was seconds from completely falling apart._

 _So he let her go, withdrawing his arms from around her body and taking a few steps from her while holding her hands. Watching her breathing start to grow uneven and her start to sniffle repeatedly. "I'm sorry," he whispered softly._

 _Casi turned her head away from him with a hiccup, "leave me alone," she murmured quietly, "please."_

 _Leo hesitated, "I'm still your best friend, right?" He asked weakly, unsure._

" _You'll always be my best friend," Casi reassured, "but please," her voice broke again, "leave me alone..."_

" _Okay…" Leo reluctantly let go of her hands, "see you later Casi." He took a few steps back before he forced himself to turn around and walk away even as he heard Casi drop to knees and give a heart wrenching sob._

 _Someone pushed past him, long straight black hair and dark green glasses, it was his sister, and Casi's other best friend._

" _Oh Casi… I'm so sorry this turned out like this…"_

 _Leo's heart clenched but he kept walking, listening to his friend's request._

" _I cant… I can't be with Leo anymore! I can only be his friend now!" Casi howled and Leo glanced back to see his sister holding Casi like a sister would, hugging her tightly and gently rubbing her back while Casi cried._

* * *

Leo sighed and looked up at the person who had angrily slammed their hands down onto the cafeteria table where the basketball team and a few of Leo's friends were all sitting together. He was sitting in the middle, with Casi sitting at a table nearby with the rest of their dorm. She was laughing and cracking jokes like normal, but Leo could hear the forced nature of each one, like she didn't want to be here but was obligated to be. "What Iria? I've been sitting here all lunch hour so far."

Iria's icy blue eyes narrowed at him and she raised her voice so most if not all the cafeteria could hear her, "what Iria? I heard you cheated on me Leo! Yesterday, with one of your dorm floor mates!"

Leo's blood went to ice, he hadn't meant to, he honestly hadn't meant to kiss Casi at all yesterday, but there was no way he was going to get her in trouble. Still, if he said he was too blame he could kiss his scholarship goodbye.

"Well?!" Iria shrieked and Leo just stared at her in a dumbfounded fashion, confused and gobsmacked at even the idea. "Who did you cheat on me with? Tell me Leo!"

Leo didn't know what to do, either way he was screwed, he didn't have a way out of this one. He was alone in this.

"Leo didn't cheat on you." Another voice added, cool and sharp, odd for the basketball player with an immature attitude who cracked jokes all the time.

Leo looked over at them and watched with a start as his best friend pushed through the crowd gathering with a determined look on her face. She had his back, even though in a situation like this he didn't want her to. _No! Stay back Casi!_

"What do you know about it?" Iria snapped harshly at the athlete, furious blue eyes focused on her as she straightened up and Casi approached her.

"I know all about it, after all I was there." Casi responded coolly, blue eyes flickering around the room before she addressed Iria again with a daring play. "I forced Leo into a kiss. He didn't cheat on you, I forced him to kiss me. I was bored and wanted something to do."

"So you kiss _my_ boyfriend?!" Iria shrieked, and the cafeteria was buzzing with whispers from the students around them.

"Yes," Casi replied with a hint of smugness in her voice, "I kissed him, blackmailed him too, said I'd pull an audio prank on you that would make your ears ring for weeks." She crossed her arms across her chest while Iria looked furious.

Leo felt fear creeping into his chest, what was Casi doing? Trying to get punched in the face? His friend never acted like this, dark and mocking.

"He's a brilliant kisser too, which I would already know since I'm the one who kissed him first. Although… it looks like all those moments of you two kissing the hell out of each other in a tiny corner has made him a million times better." Casi leaned a little toward Iria, "aw, is the ice queen angry I kissed your guy?" She asked in a mocking voice as Iria's ears flushed red with anger. "Probably was the best kiss of my life so far. Nothing like kissing Leo to make you feel better." She took a step back and gestured to herself, "want to hit me? Be my guest. You can punch me in the face, beat the crap out of me, ruin my reputation, whatever you'd like." A smug smirk spread across her features, "maybe I'll blackmail him into a different kind of kiss next time, I know, how about-" She was cut off by Iria shrieking in anger and nailing the athlete hard in the mouth.

Casi laughed as she fell, landing hard on her butt but looking smugly up at Iria, "that really got under your skin didn't it?" She spat out a glob of blood on Iria's shoes, "little Mrs. Rich-Princess, I got more where that came from, I wonder what else Leo would do under blackmail, what about break up with you? Or I know," she raised her eyebrows in a suggestive manner with a smug smirk on her face. This time Casi didn't have to say anything before Iria roared in anger and pinned her down, Casi's head violently slamming into the floor before Iria punched her again in the face, repeatedly punching Casi in the face and mouth, shrieking with anger and fury.

Students were cheering as Casi laughed between getting punched and Iria kept punching her. Leo felt dizzy, sick even as his best friend laughed like she had really lost her mind and his girlfriend kept beating her up. _Casi… what… what possessed you to do this to yourself?_

"How… dare… you… little-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Hailey's authoritative shout broke through the cheering as she yanked Iria off Casi and shoved the blonde back toward her group of friends while Casi lifted herself up on her right arm and used her exoskeleton covered left to casually wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth. "What are you doing Iria? Beating up Casi isn't going to do anything! Explain yourself!"

Iria jabbed a finger at Casi, "she forced Leo into kissing her!"

Casi gave Iria a cheshire cat grin that sent chills up Leo's spine, Casi's teeth were slightly bloody from the repeated punches to the mouth, and the look in her blue eyes was almost murderous. However a moment later she lost the creepy grin and lightly shrugged her shoulders, "it's not actually true, just a flimsy rumor."

"StarClan above, Casi what am I supposed to do with you," Hailey muttered under her breath, "Iria, double detention for a week, Casi you're going to the nurse's office and you're unofficially suspended for the week. No leaving your dorm for anything besides basketball practice unless your escorted by me or another teacher."

The other students gasped and Leo looked wide-eyed at Hailey before he gawked at Casi at her reaction.

Casi simply shrugged and let Hailey harshly pull her to her feet by the back of her jacket, "fine with me."

Leo watched her leave even as Iria perched in his lap, mumbling about the double detention she had received. _Casi what in your right mind possessed you to go far enough to get yourself suspended?!_

* * *

"Casi, what. The. Heck." Leo threw down his backpack the moment he entered his dorm and heard a yelp from Briley as it nailed her in the back of the head but he promptly ignored her. "You want to explain that little stunt in the cafeteria?" He snapped as he approached his best friend on the couch, only to pause, finding her asleep.

Casi was asleep, sprawled awkwardly on the couch while having fallen asleep while holding an ice pack to her left eye. Her face was bruised and swelling, with her lower and upper lips split in more than one spot and her nose red and swelling almost like she had nearly broken it.

Leo eventually broke out of his concerned stupor and harshly shook her by the shoulder, waking her up with a start. "You could've relapsed!"

Casi floundered, her visible blue eye popping open before it focused on him and went dull and tired. "For StarClan's sake Leo," she slapped his hand from her shoulder, "quit touching me and tell me what the heck you're yelling about."

Leo glared at her, "You could've relapsed and fallen back into that coma Casi! What were you thinking goading Iria like that?"

Casi looked at him, and he couldn't believe the next words that came out of her mouth. "I wanted to relapse," she snapped back at him and pushed herself away from him, still holding the ice pack over her injured eye. "If I relapsed I wouldn't have to deal with seeing you and Iria every day now would I- Ow! What as that for!" She yelped when Leo promptly slapped her across the face, restraining the urge to punch her when she was already beaten up.

"What was that for?! Are you listening to yourself?! I didn't go through six months of hell waiting for my only friend at the time to wake up only to have her want to relapse nine years later!" Leo snarled at her, glaring dangerously at her.

"Oh so you think I want to watch as my heart dies a little more every day?" Casi shouted back, "I'm already dying in here," she stabbed her finger at her heart, "so what's the point of living any longer?! At least if I relapse I don't have to deal with finding you squished in a corner kissing Iria with your hands whereever she wants them to be!" She stood up and threw the ice pack at him, nailing him in the gut and revealing the swollen shut and developing black eye, "I can dream and live through those dreams how I want them to go! Where _I'm_ the one your kissing, not her!"

Leo's anger vanished at the sight of the injury and concern overtook his features before he reached forward and brushed his fingertips over her bruised flesh. "How many times did she hit you?"

Casi was fuming, but she responded to his question, and left his hand there, letting the cool touch of his fingers calm her and soothe her injury. "Eleven times. Hailey said I missed relapsing by a a couple more punches, hooray for me," she stated sarcastically.

He had almost lost her. "Promise me you won't do that again," He said suddenly, looking seriously at her, "I can't lose you again."

Casi looked at him in a tired fashion as her anger drained away as well. "It was a fleeting feeling Leo. I was shaken up afterward, and confused to why I wanted it so badly in those moments."

Leo nodded and studied the damage to her face, "what did Hailey say the extent or your injuries was?"

Casi swallowed hard, "concussion, split lip, a black eye and…"

"And?"

"And a little internal bleeding up here," she pointed to her head, blue eyes guilty and regretful.

Leo stared at her, "so if you sustain a few more heavy hits to the head…"

Casi looked back at him, blue eyes tired, miserable, and scared. "I'm going to lose consciousness and likely never wake up again."

Leo's heart was in his throat and he almost choked before he pulled her harshly into his arms and held her tightly, shaking slightly. "Promise me you'll take care of yourself, Cas I _can not_ lose you. I can't watch you lay there in a hospital bed for months or to till your parents agree to pull life support again, please… don't leave me again…"

He felt Casi's arms slip around his back and felt her shake as the realization of really how close she was to losing the life ahead of her really hit her. "StarClan I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," Casi blubbered, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'll be careful in the future, I promise I'll be careful now…"


End file.
